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Salad dodgers fight slummy mummies for Aussie word honor 澳洲字典票選年度生字

A potential yummy mummy watches the Fashion in the Field parade at the Melbourne Cup in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 6, 2007. 去年十一月六日，一位美艷辣媽在澳洲墨爾本的墨爾本盃種馬賽上觀賞「Fashion in the Field」遊行。 照片：法新社 PHOTO: AFP

A cyberathlete might not suffer boomeritis as he or she is probably a digital native, but could be at risk of globesity, according to Australia's top dictionary.

The Macquarie Dictionary last week asked readers to vote for their favorite new word in the latest annually updated online volume, offering a total of 85 words or phrases.

Most of the words are not specifically Australian, but reflect global trends in fields such as technology, health and what the dictionary calls the social scene.

A cyberathlete is defined as "a professional player of computer games" while boomeritis covers sports-related injuries suffered by baby boomers as they pursue physical fitness programs into their old age.

A digital native is "a person who grows up using digital media and communications systems, and thus has complete familiarity with them," while globesity sums up the worldwide fat phenomenon.

At risk of globesity are salad dodgers - overweight people - and slummy mummies - mothers of young children who no longer take care of their personal appearance, as opposed to yummy mummies.

The overworked mother is unlikely, however, to suffer from tanorexia - "an obsessive desire to have tanned skin, placing the sufferer at risk of skin cancer."

Someone who might have tanorexia would be a person who practices manscaping - "a grooming procedure in which hair is shaved or trimmed from a man's body, as from the back, legs, chest, genitals, etc."

Many of the new words come from technology, with password fatigue being "a level of frustration reached by having too many different passwords to remember."

Voting for a favorite word takes place over the last three weeks of January, with the "word of the year" announced in early February.(AFP)

澳洲最大字典表示，一個對數位科技得心應手的網路遊戲專家，或許不會遭受嬰兒潮世代的運動傷害，卻可能面臨全球肥胖化的危險。

「麥奎爾網路字典」年度最新版上週邀請使用者票選出最近一年他們最喜歡的新字，網站中共有八十五個單字或片語供讀者選擇。

這些單字大多不是澳洲特有字彙，而是和反映全球科技、健康及被該字典稱為社會現象等領域的趨勢有關。

「cyberathlete」被定義為電腦遊戲的專業玩家；而「boomeritis」則表示嬰兒潮世代在步入晚年從事健身運動時的相關運動傷害。

「a digital native」是指從小就使用數位媒體和通訊系統，對數位科技得心應手的人；而「globesity」則泛指全球普遍的肥胖現象。

「salad dodgers（過胖的人）」和「slummy mummies（生了小孩之後就不注重外貌的母親）」是「globesity」的危險族群；與「slummy mummies」相反的是「yummy mummies」。

工作過度的母親則不太可能有「tanorexia（極度渴望健康膚色，甘冒皮膚癌的危險）」的問題。

經常做「manscaping（男性體毛修剪，修剪部位包括背部、雙腿、胸膛、生殖器等）」的人可能會有「tanorexia」的問題。

許多新的辭彙是因應科技產生，如「password fatigue」是指因為得背太多組不同的密碼而感到挫折無力的症狀。

一月份展開的最愛生字票選活動已進行三週，而「年度生字」將在二月初公布。（法新社／翻譯：袁星塵）

TODAY'S WORDS 今日單字 1. baby boomer n. 嬰兒潮世代 (ying1 er2 chao2 shi4 dai4) 例: Jeff's grandfather is a baby boomer. (傑夫的祖母是嬰兒潮世代。) 2. phenomenon n. 現象 (xian4 xiang4)，稀奇事 (xi1 qi2 shi4) 例: A major phenomenon happened last night. (昨晚發生了一件很稀奇的事。) 3. obsessive adj. 過分著迷的 (guo4 fen4 zhao2 mi2 de5) 例: Cory is obsessive about his work and it really bugs his wife. (柯瑞過度關心他的工作，這讓他太太很火大。) 4. trim v.t./v.i. 修剪 (xiu1 jian3) 例: Tony trimmed his beard last night, but now you can hardly tell. (東尼昨晚才修剪了鬍子，但現在卻一點都看不出來。)

SAY WHAT? 說說看 favorite new word 最愛生字 Some other candidates for favorite new word are infomania, which means "the tendency to give immediate attention to incoming messages such as e-mails or text messages, resulting in constant distraction," and dumpster diving, which means "the salvaging of household food items from the stock which has been thrown away by a shop, supermarket, etc., into a dumpster." For example, "Marcus is an infomaniac, and his productivity dropped so low that he was fired. He couldn't find a new job and had to resort to dumpster diving." 其他一些榜上有名的最愛生字如「infomania」是指有立即注意新進訊息（如電子郵件或簡訊）的癖好；「dumpster diving」意指從垃圾車中挖掘商家、超市等丟棄的家用食品，例如：「馬可斯是一個資訊狂，導致他工作效率超低所以被開除；他找不到新的工作，所以得靠挖垃圾過活」。

OUT LOUD 對話練習 Ronnie: What's up Wayne? Wayne: I'm getting ready for my first day of work at the paper. Ronnie: Loser! You're a member of the lamestream. Wayne: What are you talking about? Ronnie: The lamestream is the traditional media. It's lame because it's "lacking the originality and daring of the blogosphere." 羅尼：緯恩，近況如何啊？ 緯恩：我準備好要到報社報到了。 羅尼：你這個失敗者！你成為lamestream的一員了。 緯恩：你在說什麼啊？ 羅尼：lamestream就是失勢的傳統媒體啊，因為他們欠缺部落格空間的創新與大膽。 lamestream　失勢的傳統媒體 Lamestream is another word that's up for favorite new word. The lamestream includes traditional media outlets, such as newspapers, magazines and TV news. 「lamestream」也是最愛生字之一，它包含傳統媒體通路，例如報章雜誌和電視新聞等。

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