In 2020, a beautiful number with symmetrical beauty filled many people with expectation and yearning before its arrival. Unexpectedly, when I first entered, the world was in chaos. The epidemic in novel coronavirus has evolved into an "epidemic" sweeping the world. By the beginning of June, about 7 million people had been diagnosed and 400,000 people had died.
On may 25, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, an African-American George? George Floyd was crushed on his knee by the police in the street, causing suffocation and death. The next day, local demonstrations and protests were held. The public's anger started like wildfire, and then spread throughout the United States and even around the world, even triggering large-scale smashing, looting and violent attacks. People were shocked to see smoke everywhere.
It's only halfway through 2020, and a Latin loan in English is "annus horribilis" (a year of constant disasters, phonetic symbol [? n？ s h？ r？ b？ l？ S]), has been hovering in my mind.
The literal meaning of "year of terror" is a terrible year, and annus is a year, from which annual comes. Terror is terrible and the ultimate source of terror. At the end of 1992, Queen Elizabeth II used this expression to describe that year: Windsor Castle fire, Princess divorced, Duke of York separated from his wife, Prince of Wales separated from Princess. Everything went wrong with the British royal family that year, and the queen felt it. This "troubled year" was well used.
Or, in the second half of 2020, go against the trend and turn it into a miracle and become a "strange year" (an extraordinary year, phonetic symbol [? n？ s·m？ r？ b？ l？ s])？
"annus mirabilis" is also a Latin loan word in English, which literally means a miraculous year. The same annus is a miracle. This sentence is the English poet laureate John? It was initiated by john dryden. He wrote a poem with this name in 1667, in which he described the London fire in 1666 and the great victory of Britain in the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
As the British writer Dryden said, the "strange year" was originally a year in which disasters and miracles coexisted, and many major events occurred in generate one after another. However, because of the singularity, we have a "miracle" association, and semantics seems to have a positive development trend, which has gradually become a year of thumbs-up surprise.
The English dictionary published by Webster's Dictionary Company (commonly known as Webster Publishing Company) is world-famous. Now, Webster's iconic product (commonly known as Webster's dictionary) is a free online resource. Based on the 1 1 version of Webster's College Dictionary, the content is regularly revised and updated, adding many features that reflect the pulse of the times.
Webster's column is called "Latest Trends", which reflects the word news event-driven search. Since 2020, many foreign words have been searched, almost all of which are Latin and French. Some foreign words have been integrated into English for a long time, and their heterogeneity is no longer felt, such as Kobe Bryant, the superstar of NBA in the United States. Kobe Bryant died in an air crash on October 26th, 65438/KLOC-0, surreal (surreal; Weird) quickly boarded Webster's hot search, and this English word was borrowed from French. Another example is New York Governor Andrew? Andrew Cuomo)3 mentioned on March 24 that the number of confirmed cases in COVID-19, New York has hit record highs, using apex(vertex；; Go to hot search immediately. This English word is borrowed from Latin.
In Webster's hot search in the first half of 2020, several foreign words with high heterogeneity appeared, which made people find out at a glance that they were out of tune with English. 654381October 30, in the attack and defense of the impeachment case of US President Trump, Trump's lawyer argued that if what is beneficial to the president is also beneficial to the country, then the president is above the law and should not be bound by the law. A law professor at Harvard University called this argument "l'état, c'est moi" (I am a country with phonetic symbols [le? tɑ s？ Mwɑ]), quoted the famous saying that King Louis XIV of France was endowed with sacred sovereignty and kingship was supreme. The first half of létat ([le? T ι]) means state (country), the second half of c'est moi ([s? Mw ι] means it's me (that's me).
This allusion to "J 'accusation" is of great significance, which originated from the French writer Emile? Zola (? Mile Zola) An open letter to the French President * * * and 189865438+ 10/3. The headline of Eurola is "J 'Accuse ...! "。 Zola is a Jewish officer in the text, Avery? Alfred dreyfus confessed that Dreyfus was accused of treason, which was really unfair. Dreyfus was finally rehabilitated and vindicated, and the Dreyfus incident became an important chapter in the history of European anti-Semitism.
Webster's hot search also has two Latin loanwords.
On March 26th, Sanskrit announced that Pope Francis would hold a "urbi et orbi" (for the whole city and the whole world, with phonetic symbols [? Bi? t？ Rbi])。 This "urbi et orbi" is a Latin phrase, which literally means "to the city and the world" (to Rome and the world), and it is the Pope's proclamation to the whole city and the world at a specific time. This kind of blessing is rare, usually held twice a year, once at Christmas and once at Easter. The COVID-19 epidemic broke out this year, so a special prayer was held for all mankind.
On April 17, Gu Mo, the governor of New York, presided over a press conference on the COVID-19 epidemic, at which he used "trace" (insignificant; Can be ignored. Phonetic symbol [d m? n？ m？ S]), emphasizing that the epidemic situation in new york is severe, in contrast, the epidemic situation in many other states can be ignored. "Trace" is a legal term that most people are not familiar with. Gu Mo is a doctor of law from Albany Law School. He unconsciously used a technical word to make everyone look at each other, so he had to look it up in the dictionary quickly.
"Trace" is an abbreviation, which comes from the Latin legal principle "minimis non curat lex". Its literal meaning is "the law doesn't care about trivial matters", that is, the law doesn't care about trivial matters and doesn't commit minor crimes. German (about, phonetic symbol [d? ) is a Latin preposition. Minimum (lowest; At least. Phonetic symbol [? m？ n？ m？ S]) and English minimum(minimum；; At least) homologous. Non (no, phonetic symbol [nɑn]) is an adverb expressing negation. Curat (phonetic symbol [? Kur ι t]) and English care(care；; Nursing), cure (treatment; Cure). Lex (phonetic symbol [l? Ks]) is "law", law (law; Legal) from this.
"l'état, c'est moi" (I am a country), "j' burn" (strongly condemned), "urbi et orbi" (for the whole city and the whole world) and "minimis" (irrelevant). Through Webster's search, we can see the turmoil in the first half of 2020.
July has arrived. What will happen in the second half of 2020? Continue? Flip? At the end of the year, when reviewing and summarizing, I don't know if this year is really "annus horribilis", or is there a chance for us to give a thumbs up and marvel at this "strange year" (extraordinary year)? God bless!
Zeng Taiyuan (Associate Professor of Soochow University in Taiwan Province Province, former head of the English Department)