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Now, have any of y'all ever looked up this word?
好，你们中有谁查过这个单词？
You know, in a dictionary? Yeah, that's what I thought.
用字典？是的，我想也就这个样子。
How about this word? Here, I'll show it to you.
这个单词呢？看看解释：
Lexicography: the practice of compiling dictionaries.
Lexicography(字典学):编纂字典的活动。
Notice -- we're very specific -- that word "compile."
注意，这是专用的说法，定义里用“编纂”这个词。
The dictionary is not carved out of a piece of granite, out of a lump of rock. It's made up of lots of little bits.
字典并不是从一大块岩石里凿出的花岗岩，而是由很多的小块小块合起来的。
It's little discrete -- that's spelled D-I-S-C-R-E-T-E -- bits. And those bits are words.
分离的，英语里边的串法是D-I-S-C-R-E-T-E——小块。我们这里说的小块就是指单词了。
Now one of the perks of being a lexicographer --
作为字典编纂者的好处--
besides getting to come to TED -- is that you get to say really fun words, like lexicographical.
除了有机会来 TED演讲以外，就是可以说很有趣的单词，例如，lexicographical,字典编纂学。
Lexicographical has this great pattern: it's called a double dactyl.
这个词有一种很棒的押韵，“扬抑抑格”。
And just by saying double dactyl, I've sent the geek needle all the way into the red.
只要说到“扬抑抑格”，古怪指数就可以飙升到红色警戒。
But "lexicographical" is the same pattern as "higgledy-piggledy."
其实，lexicographical与 "higgledy-piggledy"(“杂乱无章”的意思)有一样的押韵。
Right? It's a fun word to say, and I get to say it a lot.
对吧？这个词单发音就很好玩，我常常说它。
Now, one of the non-perks of being a lexicographer
同时，作为字典编纂者，一个让人郁闷的地方
is that people don't usually have a kind of warm, fuzzy, snuggly image of the dictionary.
是字典从来没有给人留下一个温暖，舒适的印象。
Right? Nobody hugs their dictionaries.
对吧？没有人会拥抱他们的字典。
But what people really often think about the dictionary is, they think more like this.
但是，其实人们通常对字典的看法是这样的。
Just to let you know, I do not have a lexicographical whistle.
告诉你一件事情，我没有什么纂字哨子，
But people think that my job is to let the good words
尽管大家认为我的工作是让所谓的好词
make that difficult left-hand turn into the dictionary, and keep the bad words out.
做一个有难度的左转拐入字典，而把所谓的坏词挡于门外。
But the thing is, I don't want to be a traffic cop.
问题是，我不想当交通警察。
