“降级冥王星” 年度词汇拔头筹

很难给语言下个准确的定义，但有一点可以肯定，语言不是一成不变的教科书。新年伊始，美国方言学会选定“plutoed”（由“冥王星降级”，引申为“被贬、被降级”）为美国2006年度词汇。

看外电相关报道："Plutoed" was chosen 2006's Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society at its annual meeting Friday.

To "pluto" is "to demote or devalue someone or something," much like what happened to the former planet last year when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto didn't meet its definition of a planet.

报道指出，冥王星因在国际天文学协会大会上被认为不符合行星标准而遭降级，名词“Pluto”（冥王星）由此被语言学家赋予了动词涵义“降级、贬值”。相应的，Pluto（降级、贬值）的过去分词形式“Plutoed”则用来形容“被贬、被降级”。

看来，有失亦有得。冥王星虽在天文学界遭“降级”，却不想“因祸得福”，赢得了语言学一席之地。