2006年冥王星被踢出行星行列可謂天文學史上的一大事件。不過有失亦有得，冥王星充滿戲劇性的命運，為它在語言學史上贏得了一席之地。在美國方言協會發起的英語“2006年度熱詞”評選中，“Plutoed”一詞拔得頭籌。原本只有名詞含義的“Pluto”（冥王星），如今被語言學家們賦予了動詞含義，即“使某人或某物降級或貶值”。這如同冥王星在國際天文學協會大會上被認為不符合行星定義而遭降級一樣。Pluto的過去分詞形式“Plutoed”因此具有了“被降級、被貶”的含義。

"Plutoed" was chosen 2006's Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society at its annual meeting Friday.

Pluto is finally getting some respect - not from astronomers, but fromwordsmiths.

"Plutoed" was chosen 2006's Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society at its annual meeting Friday.

To "pluto" is "todemoteordevaluesomeone 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.

"Our members believe the great emotional reaction of the public to the demotion of Pluto shows the importance of Pluto as a name," said society president Cleveland Evans. "We may no longer believe in the Roman god Pluto, but we still have a sense of personal connection with the former planet."

"Plutoed" won in arunoffagainst "climate canary," defined as "an organism or species whose poor health or declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon."

Other words considered: murse (man's purse), flog (a fake blog that promotes products) and macaca (an American citizen treated as an alien).

Republican former Sen. George Allen was ahead in his re-election campaign when he said "macaca," which some regard as aracial slur, and "welcome to America" in referring to a US-born man of Indian descent who was volunteering for Allen's opponent. Allen lost to Democrat Jim Webb.

The 117-year-old American Dialect Society comprises linguists, grammarians, historians and independent scholars, among others. Members conduct the vote for fun and not in an official capacity to induct words into the English language.

The society chose "truthiness" as its top word last year. The word is credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."

Last month, an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster declared "truthiness" the word of the year for 2006.

（chinadaily.com.cn）

Vocabulary:

wordsmith：詞語大師，語言藝術家

demote：降級

devalue：貶值

runoff：決賽

racial slur：種族歧視

（英語點津陳蓓編輯）