Our Word of the Year for 2017 is … populism.

我们的2017年度词汇是——民粹主义（ populism）。

Choosing our Word of the Year required looking at not only the most searched-for words, but also ‘spikes’ – occasions when a word is suddenly looked up many more times than usual on or around a particular date.

我们选择年度词汇不仅需要寻找搜索频率最高的词汇，还要记录短时间内搜索量急速上涨的词汇。

On 22 January 2017, as a polarizing candidate was being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, searches for the word inauguration on the online Cambridge Dictionaryspiked. But so did searches for the word populism because, on that same day, Pope Francis warned against a rising tide of populism in a widely reported interview with El Paisnewspaper. In mid-March, after another high-profile interview with the pontiff – this time with the German newspaper Die Zeit – searches for populism spiked again.

2017年1月22日，特朗普，这位极端候选人正式宣誓入职，成为美国第45任总统。“就职典礼（inauguration）”一词在剑桥在线词典的搜索量空前上涨。当天，教皇方济各(Pope Francis)在西班牙受众面极广的《国家报》（El Pais）中警告民粹主义浪潮正在涌起，词语“民粹主义（ populism）”的搜索量也飙升起来。三月中，《德国时代周报》（Die Zeit）高调采访了一位教皇，“民粹主义”的搜索量再次骤增。

Spikes can reveal what is on our users’ minds and, in what’s been another eventful year, plenty of spikes can be directly connected to news items about politics in the US (nepotism, recuse, bigotry, megalomania) and the UK (shambles, untenable, extradite). The much-anticipated Taylor Review of working practices in the UK caused the term gig economy to spike in July, and of course the spectacular solar eclipse is reflected in the spike for eclipse on 21 August.

搜索量骤增可以反应出搜索者的思想、一年来的重大事件。大量的搜索数据能直观反映出政治新动态，美国的搜索高频词汇有：裙带关系（nepotism）、取消陪审员资格（recuse）、偏见（ bigotry）、自大狂（megalomania），英国有：混乱（shambles）、难维持的（untenable）、引渡（extradite）。民众热切期待的《泰勒评论》（ Taylor Review）关于英国工作环境的内容致使“零工经济（gig economy）”一词在7月搜索量增加。当然，壮观的日食后，8月21日，“日食（eclipse）”的搜索量也空前增加。

What sets populism apart from all these other words is that it represents a phenomenon that’s both truly local and truly global, as populations and their leaders across the world wrestle with issues of immigration and trade, resurgent nationalism, and economic discontent.

“民粹主义（populism）”脱颖而出是因为它体现了地区和全球的真实情况，世界各地的领导人和人民都在努力解决移民、贸易、再次崛起的民族主义和对经济不满等问题。

Populism is described by the Cambridge Dictionary as ‘political ideas and activities that are intended to get the support of ordinary people by giving them what they want’. It includes the usage label ‘mainly disapproving’. Populism has a taint of disapproval because the –ism ending often indicates a philosophy or ideology that is being approached either uncritically (liberalism, conservatism, jingoism) or cynically (tokenism).

剑桥字典这样描述民粹主义：“是政治观点或活动，意在通过满足民众需求获得支持”，附带标签“大多数情况下为贬义”。“民粹主义（Populism）”偏向贬义，是因为以“主义（–ism）”结尾的词汇通常暗示着某种哲学含义或意识形态，这种哲学含义或意识形态可能是无主见的，比如，自由主义（liberalism）、保守主义（conservatism）、极端爱国主义（ jingoism），或者是愤世嫉俗的，比如表面主义（tokenism）。

Evidence from the Cambridge English Corpus – our 1.5-billion-word database of language – reveals that people tend to use the term populism when they think it’s a political ploy instead of genuine. Both aspects of –ism are evident in the use of populism in 2017: the implied lack of critical thinking on the part of the populace, and the implied cynicism on the part of the leaders who exploit it.

剑桥英语语料库（Cambridge English Corpus）收录了人类15亿词汇，其中有证据表明，人们会把不单纯的政治手段描述为“民粹主义”。2017年“民粹主义（Populism）”一词既体现了无主见（普通民众缺乏批判性思维），又传达了愤世嫉俗（领导人对该词的使用）。

（翻译：阿忙）

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