为什么新版汉语字典收录“失联”“土豪”,却没有“屌丝”“剩女”?

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The revised edition of the Dictionary of Modern Standard Chinese has just been released, and with it, more than 100 new terms — many slang or online neologisms — have been granted admission to the august realm of official Chinese lexicons.

《现代汉语规范词典》第三版刚刚发布，100多个新词获准进入官方汉语词汇的庄严殿堂，其中很多都是俚语或网络新词。

The new entries include weixin (微信), or WeChat, the hugely popular social messaging service operated by Tencent. There are also some older words recently revived and repurposed for contemporary use, such as tuhao (土豪), literally translated as tu, or “dirt,” and hao, or “despotic.”

新词条包括“微信”——腾讯公司推出的非常受欢迎的社交消息服务平台。还有一些最近复活的老词，被赋予了当代的新意，比如“土豪”。

Commonly used in the 1930s to refer to local tyrants, tuhao today derides a new privileged class that has emerged in China: people who are “extremely wealthy but lacking in education or values,” according to the dictionary’s definition.

这个词在20世纪30年代很常用，指的是地方上的豪强，如今用于嘲弄中国的一个新的特权阶层：该词典对它的解释是“富有钱财而缺少文化和正确价值观的人”。

But why did weixin and tuhao make the cut, while other, seemingly equally popular terms were shut out? Not admitted to the new edition were such words as diaosi (屌丝), literally “silk penis” but meaning “loser”; shengnü (剩女), or “leftover woman”; shengnan (剩男), “leftover man”; and baifumei (白富美), meaning “white, rich and beautiful.”

但是为什么“微信”和“土豪”入选，而其他一些似乎同样流行的词汇却被排除在外？比如“屌丝”、“剩女”、“剩男”和“白富美”。

Li Xingjian, the chief editor of the dictionary, said a team of about 30 language experts worked for more than three years with help from the state-backed National Languages Committee to select the new terms. They took into account three main considerations: whether the term has entered public discourse, whether circulation of the term has stabilized and whether the term meets a minimum level of tastefulness.

该字典的主编李行健说，一个约由30位语言专家组成的团队在国家语言文字工作委员会的帮助下，用三年多时间挑选了这些新词。他们主要考虑以下三个因素：该词是否已进入公共话语，该词的流传是否已经稳定，用最低标准衡量该词是否足够文雅。

“We considered and discussed a huge list,” Mr. Li said in a telephone interview. “A term like diaosi is not very tasteful, and it’s unlikely to endure for much longer. And shengnü, we just thought it wasn’t that significant. It’s used a lot by young people online, but otherwise people don’t really use it.”

“我们考虑、讨论了一个很长的名单，”李行健在电话采访中说，“像屌丝这样的词不太文雅，它不大可能会流传很长时间。至于剩女，我们就是觉得它不够重要。年轻人在网上用得很多，但是在其他情况下人们并不用它。”

“On the other hand, tuhao has always been around. It has a mocking meaning, but it’s not necessarily derogatory,” he said. “Plus we think it’ll stay around for a while, because in real life there really are these kind of people and therefore a need to describe them.”

“而‘土豪’一直都存在。它有点嘲弄意味，但不一定是贬义，”他说，“另外我们觉得它会长期存在，因为现实生活中真的存在这样的人，所以我们需要有个词来描述他们。”

The Dictionary of Modern Standard Chinese, first published by the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in 2004, is appreciated especially by scholars and those interested in contemporary usage. It is not the first reference dictionary in China, however. That honor still goes to the New China Character Dictionary and the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, older texts that are widely used in schools and offices and slower to exhibit change.

《现代汉语规范词典》的第一版2004年由外语教学与研究出版社出版的，主要是受到学者和对词汇的当代用法感兴趣的人的青睐。但它不是中国首要的参考词典。那项荣誉仍属于《新华字典》和《现代汉语词典》，它们是学校和办公室广泛使用的较老的文本，在展现变化方面比较慢。

Every five years, the Dictionary of Modern Standard Chinese is revised, with outdated words dropped to make room for new ones, said Mr. Li.

李行健说，《现代汉语规范词典》每五年修订一次，剔除过时词汇，给新词腾出空间。

But to David Moser, a specialist in Chinese linguistics, the exclusion of shengnü — “leftover woman” — in the new edition is “risible.”

但是在汉语言学专家莫大伟(David Moser)看来，把“剩女”排除在新版本之外有点“可笑”。

The term has been used in state media to describe a woman over 25 who is unmarried and thus a source of shame, and it has been criticized by feminists as evidence of an overly patriarchal society. A few women have managed to turn it around, into a homonym with a different meaning: 胜 女, or “victory woman.”

官方媒体用这个词来描述25岁以上的未婚女青年，会让人觉得有点羞辱的意味，女权主义者认为该词是男权社会的明证。有些女人把它扭转为另一个同音异义词：胜女。

“To justify excluding the new word on the grounds that it is only used by young people online is risible,” Mr. Moser, the academic director of CET Beijing Chinese Studies, wrote in an email.

“以只有年轻人在网上用它为理由把它排除在外有点可笑，”CET对外汉语学习项目负责人莫大伟在邮件中说。

“There are hundreds of millions of young people online, and usage is usage, whether in a blog post or uttered over coffee at Starbucks,” wrote Mr. Moser. “There are already dictionaries and databases that do include this word, three of them on my Pleco software alone (The Oxford Chinese Dictionary, the CC-CE Dictionary from MDBG, and the KEY Chinese Dictionary).”

“网上有数亿年轻人，使用就是使用，不管是在博客中还是在星巴克咖啡桌边的交谈中，”莫大伟写道，“有些词典和数据库已经收录了这个词，我Pleco软件上的三个词典（《牛津汉语词典》、《MDBG汉汉、汉英词典》和《KEY汉语词典》）都收录了它。”

In linguistic terms, however, a distinction between “use” and “mention” is relevant and does provide some justification for the exclusion, Mr. Moser wrote.

莫大伟还写道，不过从语言学的角度看，“使用”和“提到”还是有区别的，这确实为将该词排除在外提供了一个理由。

Many people mention the word “in that it was a topic of controversy,” he said. “But Li Xingjian is probably right that far fewer people were actually using the word (e.g. ‘I’m worried because my daughter is now a shengnü.’).”

莫大伟说，很多人是“因为它是一个争议主题”才会提到它，“很少人真的用这个词（没人说，‘我很忧虑，因为我女儿现在是剩女’），在这一点上李行健很可能是正确的。”

“Once the hype fades, it may no more be a part of the Chinese language than ‘twerking’ will be a part of English after Miley Cyrus”—the American singer— “goes on to something else,” he wrote.

“一旦这股热潮退去，它可能在汉语中就不这么常见了，就像麦莉·塞勒斯（Miley Cyrus，美国歌手）转去跳其他舞后，twerking（电臀舞）这个词在英语中就不会这么常见了，”他写道。

Here are some of the other words, along with their definitions, that have been added to the latest Dictionary of Modern Standard Chinese:

下面是加入《现代汉语规范词典》最新版的其他一些词以及它们的释义：

Zheng nengliang (正能量): Positive energy. Originally a term used in physics, popularized by the British psychologist Richard Wiseman to describe the energy that helps people build up self-confidence and optimism.

正能量：本为物理学名词，英国心理学家理查德·怀斯曼著有《正能量》，书中把人体比作一个能量场，用“正能量”比喻通过激发人的内在潜能，使人产生自信、乐观、积极进取的正面力量。

Tucao (吐槽): Quick, sharp criticism of dialogue or events that are perceived as violating norms.

吐槽：对认为违背常理的话语、事情等予以快速、犀利的批评。

Paizhuan (拍砖): Hit with a brick. An expression meaning to oppose or criticize a viewpoint. (Mostly used on the Internet.)

拍砖：用砖头拍打（别人）。比喻提出反对或批评意见（多用于互联网）。

Jie diqi (接地气): Connected to the earth’s energy. Being in touch with real life, in accordance with objective reality; also to penetrate the grass roots, to experience and observe the condition of the people, resolve practical problems.

接地气：贴近大地气息。比喻贴近现实生活，符合客观实际；也比喻深入基层，体察民情，解决实际问题。

Some other newly admitted terms are clearly related to recent news events:

其他一些新词显然与最近的新闻事件有关：

Digouyou (地沟油): Gutter oil. Waste oils illegally used in cooking.

地沟油：用下水道、泔水等中的浮油加工提炼的油。地沟油用于餐饮对人体危害很大，但可用来提炼生物柴油等。

Shilian (失联): All communication lost. A popular phrase following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

失联：失去联系或联络。

Xikeli wu (细颗粒物): Fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5. A measurement of air pollution.

细颗粒物：指大气中直径小于或等于2.5微米的颗粒物。细颗粒物含量是测定空气质量的一个重要指标。