Our Favorite Words Of 2016

Black Cardigan is a great newsletter by writer-editor Carrie Frye, who shares dispatches from her reading life.

《黑色羊毛衫》是作家兼编辑凯莉·弗莱 (Carrie Frye) 撰写的一份精彩时事通讯，她分享了她的阅读生活。

We’re thrilled to share some of them on Longreads.

我们很高兴能在长读上分享其中的一些内容。

Go here to sign up for her latest updates.

到这里注册她的最新动态。

* * *

** **

In an earlier letter, I put out a call for favorite words you learned in 2016.

在之前的一封信中，我征集了你们在 2016 年学到的最喜欢的单词。

I hoped they’d make a nice handful of marbles for us to have in our pockets for this new year, which only this week taught me the word ‘kompromat.’ :-(.

我希望他们能为我们制作一把漂亮的弹珠，让我们在新的一年里装在口袋里，就在本周，我学会了“kompromat”这个词。:-(。

Here are the words in the order in which they flowed into my inbox.

以下是按照它们流入我的收件箱的顺序排列的单词。

It was a fun few email days.

这是有趣的几天电子邮件。

One word came from the mom of an old friend, and then later another from the old friend himself, and both their words were taken from V.S.

一个词是一位老朋友的妈妈说的，后来又是老朋友本人说的，这两个词都取自 V.S.

Pritchett.

普里切特。

Then there was ‘petrichor,’ which was a new word to me, and then, a little later, ‘petrichor’ again, as if to make sure I remembered it.

然后是“petrichor”，这对我来说是一个新词，过了一会儿，又是“petrichor”，好像是为了确保我记住它。

Things like that.

诸如此类的事情。

All in all, some pretty delightful marbles here!

总而言之，这里有一些非常令人愉快的弹珠！

Many thanks for them (and thanks to Laura Olin’s Everything Changes newsletter for the model).

非常感谢他们（也感谢劳拉·奥林（Laura Olin）为该模型撰写的一切都改变时事通讯）。

## AKASHA

## 阿卡西

“Akasha” (as in Akashic Records and…

“阿卡莎”（如阿卡西记录和……

Kashi granola?

喀什麦片？

I don’t really know what else) is a Sanskrit word for “ether.” I’d never heard the noun form or known its etymology until this week.

我真的不知道还有什么）是梵语中“以太”的意思。直到本周我才听说过这个名词形式或知道它的词源。

## EBULLIENT

## 热情洋溢

I got it wrong on the SATs and had to look it up afterwards 🙂 — Liz E.

我在 SAT 考试中做错了，后来不得不查一下 🙂 — Liz E.

## DIVULGENT and OTIOSE

## 发泄和冗长

Divulgent; otiose!

外向的；懒了！

## ENVY

## 羡慕

A garden-variety word, but one I’ve been using more and more to describe motives that previously I would have colored as “stupid” or “stubborn” or “wrong-headed.” Those judging adjectives come too easily when casting aspersions on someone (a character or a person or a group of people) with whom I disagree.

这是一个普通的词，但我越来越多地用它来描述动机，而以前我会把这些动机描述为“愚蠢”、“顽固”或“错误的头脑”。当对我不同意的某人（一个人物、一个人或一群人）进行中伤时，这些评判形容词太容易出现了。

I’ve been alarmed at the omnipresent and facile lobbing of insults this year.

我对今年无处不在且轻率的侮辱行为感到震惊。

I like ‘envy’ because it is understandable, a quality we all shun but we also all cop to having felt.

我喜欢“嫉妒”，因为它是可以理解的，我们都回避这种品质，但我们也都承认自己有过这种感觉。

It is a universal sin, more empathic than the only-someone-else-can-have-it sin of wrong-headed stubborn stupidity.

这是一种普遍的罪孽，比那种只有别人才能拥有的错误的顽固愚蠢的罪孽更具同情心。

The word reintroduced itself to me earlier this year in one simple, astounding sentence from Frederic Morton’s “A Nervous Splendor.” The book — which is a history of one year in 19th Century Viennese politics — is otherwise written with baroque abandon.

今年早些时候，弗雷德里克·莫顿（Frederic Morton）的《紧张的辉煌》中的一个简单而令人震惊的句子再次向我介绍了这个词。这本书讲述了 19 世纪维也纳政治的一年历史，其写作风格带有巴洛克风格。

But at one point he stopped, sat me down, looked me in my reader’s eye, and said, “Envy is a form of ignorance.”

但有一次他停了下来，让我坐下，看着我读者的眼睛，说：“嫉妒是一种无知。”

And now it is all around me.

现在它就在我周围。

The word has become alive.

这个词已经变得鲜活起来。

I try not to flog it with overuse.

我尽量不用过度使用来鞭打它。

— Carina M.

— 卡琳娜·M.

## ABDERITIC

## 阿德瑞提克

Abderitic is a neologism coined by Immanuel Kant in his essay “Is the human race constantly progressing?”

Abderitic是伊曼纽尔·康德在他的文章《人类是否在不断进步？》中创造的一个新词。

He argues there are three potential futures for humanity.

他认为人类存在三种潜在的未来。

“The human race exists either in continual retrogression toward wickedness, or in perpetual progression toward improvement in its moral destination, or in eternal stagnation in its present stage of moral worth among creatures.”

“人类要么不断向邪恶倒退，要么永远进步其道德目标，要么永远停滞在生物的道德价值的现阶段。”

“The first we can call moral terrorism, and the second eudaemonism …, but the third we can term abderitism because, since a true stagnation in matters of morality is not possible, a perpetually changing upward tendency and an equally frequent and profound relapse (an eternal oscillation, as it were) amounts to nothing more than if the subject had remained in the same place, standing still.” — David D.

“第一种我们可以称之为道德恐怖主义，第二种我们可以称之为幸福主义……但第三种我们可以称之为阿德主义，因为道德问题上不可能出现真正的停滞，永远变化的上升趋势和同样频繁而深刻的复发（可以说是永恒的振荡）无异于主体停留在同一个地方，一动不动。” — 大卫·D.

David D.

大卫·D.

also pointed to gynepunk, as his “new to me” word and “microbenevolence” as one he coined himself this year.

他还指出“gynepunk”这个词对我来说是“新的”，“microbenevolence”是他今年自己创造的。

## INDELIBLE and AVUNCULAR

## 不可磨灭的和慈祥的

I am torn between two words:

我在两个词之间纠结：

indelible: making marks that cannot be removed; not able to be forgottenavuncular: of or relating to an uncle; kind or friendly like an uncle

不可磨灭的：留下无法去除的痕迹；无法被遗忘的叔叔的：属于叔叔的或与叔叔有关的；像叔叔一样友善或友善

Most likely both came from Brain Pickings, one of my favorite places on the web.

很可能两者都来自 Brain Pickings，这是我在网络上最喜欢的地方之一。

—Jamey J.

——杰米·J.

## PETRICHOR

## 彼得里乔尔

My favorite obscure word is “petrichor.” I like it for its sound as well as its meaning, which is the special green-planty smell that hangs in the air shortly after it starts raining after a long dry spell.

我最喜欢的晦涩词是“petrichor”。我喜欢它的声音和它的含义，这是一种特殊的绿色植物的气味，在长期干旱后开始下雨后不久，空气中弥漫着一种特殊的绿色植物的气味。

I noticed and loved that smell all through my childhood and was astonished to learn that not only had someone else noticed it too, they had even given it a name that is actually a real word in the dictionary.

我在整个童年时期就注意到并喜欢这种气味，并惊讶地发现其他人不仅也注意到了它，他们甚至给它起了一个实际上是字典中真实单词的名字。

I can’t remember when or where I first learned the word petrichor – probably around the age of ten or eleven – but I soon completely forgot it.

我不记得我第一次学到petrichor这个词的时间和地点——大概是十岁或十一岁左右——但我很快就完全忘记了。

I remembered the smell of course, and the fact that it had a beautiful name, but not the word itself, and I had no idea how to look it up.

我当然记得它的味道，还记得它有一个美丽的名字，但不记得这个词本身，而且我不知道如何查找它。

Many years later when I was talking about cool words with my then-boyfriend, now-husband, I asked him if he knew the name of the smell of fresh rain, and right away he chimed, “oh, petrichor!” No wonder I married him.

许多年后，当我和当时的男友、现在的丈夫谈论酷话时，我问他是否知道新雨的味道叫什么名字，他立刻附和道：“哦，petrichor！”难怪我嫁给了他。

— Maggie L.

— 玛吉·L.

## SESQUIPIPEDALIAN

## 三脚马

My favorite new word of the year is sesquipedalian.

我今年最喜欢的新词是 sesquipedalian。

I get the A.Word.A.Day email, and I often have “I didn’t know there was a word for that!” moments with it.

我收到 A.Word.A.Day 电子邮件，我经常会说“我不知道有这个词！”与它在一起的时刻。

In this case, I was just tickled to learn a new, longer word for polysyllabic.

在这种情况下，我只是很高兴学习一个新的、更长的多音节单词。

— Marcia

— 玛西娅

## LIMINAL

## 极限

I wanted to share the word ‘liminal’ which means “occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.” I think I learned it when someone posted the definition on Facebook, but learned it at a really perfect time as I was going through a huge stressful transition and knowing that a word existed that described the time I was in was incredibly helpful.

我想分享“阈限”这个词，它的意思是“在边界或阈值处或两侧占据一个位置”。我想我是在有人在 Facebook 上发布这个定义时才学到的，但我是在一个非常完美的时间学到的，因为我正在经历一个巨大的压力转变，并且知道存在一个描述我所处时代的词对我非常有帮助。

I felt like, “I’m not in this alone, there’s a WORD for it so other people have also had this experience!” — Abigail W.

我觉得，“我并不孤单，有一个词可以形容它，所以其他人也有过这种经历！” — 阿比盖尔 W.

## CODSWALLOP

## 科德瓦洛普

“codswallop” has to take the cake for 2016.

“codswallop”必须夺得 2016 年的蛋糕。

— Marco R.

— 马可·R.

## CHIFFON

## 雪纺

Chiffon – “Here, help yourself to a slice of the chiffon pumpkin pie I made last night.”

雪纺——“来，吃一片我昨晚做的雪纺南瓜派。”

If all the new words I learned this year were introduced in the context of a delicious dessert, it would have been harder to pick my favorite.

如果我今年学到的所有新单词都是在美味甜点的背景下介绍的，那么要选出我最喜欢的就更难了。

— Edward L.

— 爱德华·L.

## BANDY

## 班迪

I hate to admit to loving my Kindle but hard copies are expensive in Buenos Aires and digital, old literature is cheap so last year I read 12 thousand kindle pages of Anthony Trollope for $1.99 and was in heaven.

我不愿意承认我很喜欢我的 Kindle，但在布宜诺斯艾利斯，纸质版很贵，而数字版、旧文学很便宜，所以去年我花了 1.99 美元读了 1.2 万页安东尼·特罗洛普 (Anthony Trollope) 的 Kindle 页，简直就像在天堂一样。

Now and approaching a new year – which should be an agony of a year for all of us – and for $2.99, I am reading all of V.

现在，新的一年即将到来——这对我们所有人来说应该是痛苦的一年——只要 2.99 美元，我就能读完《V》的全部内容。

S.

S。

Pritchett.

普里切特。

For relief and refuge from the Brits, I read the poets in hard copy, all my favorites.

为了摆脱英国人的束缚和庇护，我阅读了硬拷贝的诗人作品，都是我最喜欢的。

If my mood is sloping down I find that writing down my observations is a lifesaver.

如果我的情绪低落，我发现写下我的观察结果是一个救星。

Anyway, Pritchett uses the word bandy a lot, as an adjective and with a touch of my index finger I decided to check out its meaning although I thought I knew how to use it (Great Uncle Arthur was a stunted and bandy man, with a dark, sallow and strong……) .

无论如何，普里切特经常使用“bandy”这个词，作为形容词，我决定用食指触摸一下它的含义，尽管我以为我知道如何使用它（亚瑟叔叔是一个发育不良的bandy男人，皮肤黝黑，蜡黄，强壮……）。

Lo and behold I found that it meant to have a clumsy, bow legged walk and I thought of Rumpelstiltskin and how at age 70 I am still learning to let my hair down.

你瞧，我发现这意味着笨拙、罗圈腿走路，我想到了侏儒怪，以及如何在 70 岁的时候仍在学习如何放下我的头发。

I think that the use of bandy as a verb must surely be related.

我认为bandy作为动词的使用肯定是相关的。

I miss using my beat up dictionary which is close by but the finger is so easy.

我怀念使用我的破旧字典，它就在附近，但手指很容易。

— Maryanne M.

— 玛丽安·M.

## PETRICHOR (REDUX!)

## PETRICHOR（REDUX！）

My favorite new word learned this year is “petrichor”, which describes the earthy scent that rises when rain falls on dry soil.

今年我最喜欢学到的新词是“petrichor”，它描述了当雨水落在干燥的土壤上时升起的泥土气味。

Love that scent, and love that it has a name.

喜欢这种香味，也喜欢它的名字。

— Kelly R.

— 凯利·R.

## GAAF

## GAAF

There are so many words in English that are new to me–embarrassment of choice.

英语中有很多单词对我来说是新的——选择的尴尬。

So I will give you a Dutch word that always comes to my mind at the end of your newsletter: GAAF

所以我会给你一个在你的时事通讯结束时我总是想到的荷兰语单词：GAAF

You will notice the G that replaces the C.

您会注意到 G 取代了 C。

In Dutch it means something like ‘in good order’ or ‘whole’—but as an exclamation it has the joyous meaning of “I like this really” or “well done.” — Henk S.

在荷兰语中，它的意思是“井然有序”或“完整”，但作为感叹词，它具有“我真的很喜欢这个”或“干得好”的欢乐含义。 — 亨克·S.

[Editor’s note: This delights me.]

[编者注：这让我很高兴。]

## GONZO

## 奇闻趣事

I’ve become a little obsessed with the word “gonzo” – I kept seeing it pop up in online essays and journalism over the summer.

我对“奇闻趣事”这个词有点着迷——整个夏天我不断地看到它出现在在线文章和新闻中。

On the one hand, it has such a nice sound, a little unhinged and dangerous.

一方面，它的声音非常好听，但有点精神错乱和危险。

On the other, I think it’s associated with my least favorite type of masculinity: boorish and solipsistic and hedonist (i.e. Hunter S.

另一方面，我认为这与我最不喜欢的男性气质有关：粗鲁、唯我论和享乐主义者（即亨特·S.

Thompson).

汤普森）。

But why should that be?

但为什么会这样呢？

I think part of my goal for 2017 is to cultivate a feminist gonzo aesthetic in my writing.

我认为我 2017 年的目标之一是在我的写作中培养女权主义奇闻趣事美学。

— Haylie S.

— 海莉·S.

## GLISTER

## 闪光

I came across it for the first and only time reading Pritchett a few days ago.

几天前，我第一次也是唯一一次读到普里切特的书。

Here is a bit of the text from the short story “Things As They Are”:

以下是短篇小说《事物如其所是》中的一些文字：

“‘Two months,’ [in reference to an apparently short-lived marriage] sighed Mrs Forster, and her eyes opened and closed amorously in a grey glister and then sleepily half closed.”

“‘两个月，’（指的是一段显然短暂的婚姻）福斯特夫人叹了口气，她的眼睛在灰色的闪光中充满爱意地睁开又闭上，然后睡意朦胧地半闭着。”

I love a word like this that is simultaneously familiar and exotic sounding.

我喜欢这样一个听起来既熟悉又充满异国情调的词。

Not a big dick piece of sesquipedalia, but something that sounds like you should know it already.

这不是一个大的八卦，但听起来你应该已经知道了。

“Imbrue” is like that, I feel.

我觉得“Imbrue”就是这样。

Anyway glister is a synonym for glimmer glint glisten coruscate sparkle etc. “…her eyes opened amorously in a grey glister” made my toe shoot up in my boot, as it were.

无论如何，glister 是gimmer glint glisten coruscate Sparkle 等的同义词。“……她的眼睛在灰色的glister 中充满爱意地睁开”让我的脚趾在靴子里竖起，可以说是这样。

— RQ

— 需求量

## MURINE and DIE KUH VOM EIS HOLEN

## 鼠类和 DIE KUH VOM EIS HOLEN

Murine: “relating to mice” – the mouse equivalent of feline.

鼠类：“与小鼠有关”——相当于猫科动物的小鼠。

Came from an Economist article on laboratory mice.

来自《经济学人》一篇关于实验室小鼠的文章。

I also learned the excellent German phrase “die Kuh vom Eis holen”, to get the cow off the ice, which means “to avert/salvage a ridiculous/embarrassing/potentially disastrous situation”.

我还学会了一句优秀的德语短语“die Kuh vom Eis Holen”，意思是“让牛离开冰面”，意思是“避免/挽救一个荒谬/尴尬/潜在灾难性的情况”。

Someone used it in a business meeting!

有人在商务会议上用过它！

— Lucy B.

— 露西·B.

## DESUETUDE

## 结局

But I do have my word, which is one of Clary’s newfound words she enjoyed, along with “flume,” which I already knew.

但我确实有我的话，这是克拉丽喜欢的新发现的单词之一，还有“flume”，我已经知道了。

The word is “desuetude,” and means a state of disuse.

这个词是“desuetude”，意思是废弃的状态。

Doesn’t have the cocky fun of working oneself into a swivet, but things do regularly fall into desuetude and it’s fun to say.

没有把自己变成旋转的那种自大的乐趣，但事情确实经常陷入废墟，说起来很有趣。

— LeBrun F.

——勒布伦·F.

[Editor’s note: LeBrun F.

[编者按：LeBrun F.

is my mom!

是我妈妈！

And the Clary she’s referring to is a character in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles, which we’ve both been reading and, if you haven’t read yet, you should be reading too.]

她所指的克拉里是伊丽莎白·简·霍华德的《卡萨雷编年史》中的一个角色，我们都读过这本书，如果你还没有读过，你也应该读一下。]

## PITE

## 皮特

Ok, I just got a new word the other day and I felt foolish for not knowing.

好吧，前几天我刚得到一个新词，我觉得自己不知道很愚蠢。

We went to a brunch party at a favorite bookshop, my husband came up to my best friend and I (both librarians) and asked quietly what is “PITE” he was embarrassed that he didn’t know, but neither of us did.

我们去一家最喜欢的书店参加早午餐聚会，我丈夫走到我和我最好的朋友（都是图书管理员）面前，轻声问“PITE”是什么，他很尴尬，因为他不知道，但我们俩都不知道。

“where did you see it?” I asked, he pointed to the food table.

“你在哪里看到的？”我问，他指着餐桌。

All the food was covered in tin foil but usually they just have bagels so we figured it was bagels.

所有的食物都用锡纸覆盖，但通常他们只有百吉饼，所以我们认为这是百吉饼。

So then we looked it up and found out it is the plural of PITA.

然后我们查了一下，发现它是PITA的复数形式。

Which wasn’t exactly what we wanted for brunch so we left.

这并不是我们想要的早午餐，所以我们离开了。

But on the upside, I won the raffle!

但好的一面是，我赢得了抽奖！

— Sara Q.

— 萨拉 Q.

## HARRIDAN

## 哈里丹

So here is the word I learned this year: harridan.

这是我今年学到的词：harridan。

It was used a few months ago in an email sent to me by a work colleague, who is known for his verbosity (and a pretty wicked sense of humor so I knew his message was in jest).

几个月前，一位同事发给我的一封电子邮件中使用了这个词，他以冗长而闻名（还有一种相当邪恶的幽默感，所以我知道他的信息是在开玩笑）。

I had reminded him that he had a missed a deadline, which he acknowledged.

我提醒他，他错过了最后期限，他承认了这一点。

He then assured me, “I will file it this afternoon, you HARRIDAN.”

然后他向我保证，“我会在今天下午提交，你哈里丹。”

I confess that I did not know the meaning of that word, but Google soon informed me that it means “a strict, bossy, belligerent old woman.”

我承认我不知道这个词的意思，但谷歌很快告诉我，它的意思是“一位严格、专横、好战的老妇人”。

I immediately replied that I may be strict and bossy and, yes, occasionally belligerent but that I AM NOT OLD.

我立即回答说，我可能很严格、专横，是的，偶尔也好斗，但我不老。

So there.

就这样。

— LR

— LR

## NETTLED

## 荨麻疹

My word is “nettled” as in “irritated, vexed, provoked.”

我用的词是“恼怒”，如“恼怒、恼怒、激怒”。

i was reminded of it when my therapist had me study a list of words that describe states of anger from the OED as an exercise in, uh, i guess, anger literacy?

当我的治疗师让我研究《牛津英语词典》中描述愤怒状态的一系列单词作为练习时，我想起了这一点，呃，我猜，愤怒素养？

so useful!

太有用了！

such a nettling year!

真是令人烦恼的一年！

— JC

— JC

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