dead-on

ＳＦのThe Martian by Andy Weirから最後の引用です。
"You ready, Johanssen?" Lewis asked.
"Yes," Johanssen said. "All I have to do is hit enter."
"Martinez, how's our angle?"
"Dead-on, Commander," Martinez reported.
"Strap in," Lewis said.
"dead-on" の意味を辞書で調べます。
・Merriam-Webster: exactly correct or accurate: a dead-on analysis: his impersonations were dead-on
・Dictionary.com: exactly right, accurate, or pertinent: The film director has a dead-on feel for characterization.
語源が気になるので調べました。
Online Etymology Dictionaryの "dead" の語源から抜粋します。
Used from 16c. in adjectival sense of "utter, absolute, quite" (as in dead drunk, first attested 1590s; dead heat, 1796). As an adverb, from late 14c. Dead on is 1889, from marksmanship.
なるほど、射撃で使われ始めた表現なのですね。

kaleidoscope

ラグビー日本選手権の決勝戦も良い試合でした。惜しくもパナソニックが負けましたがどとらも強かった。
さて、Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'Life in these United States' からの引用です。
I was singing along with the radio as it played the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
" As I sang the lyric "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes," my husband interrupted.
"Is that what he's singing?" he asked. "All these years, I thought it was 'the girl with colitis goes by.'"

push comes to shove

ＳＦのThe Martian by Andy Weirを読んでいます。
"If I can't reach Mark, I want you to release my tether."
"Dr. Beck," Vogel said, "the commander has said no to this."
"I know what the commander said, but if I need a few more meters, I want you to cut me loose. I have an MMU, I can get back without a tether."
"I will not do this, Dr. Beck."
"It's my own life at risk, and I say it's okay."
"You are not the commander."
Beck scowled at Vogel, but with their reflective visitors down, the effect was lost.
"Fine," Beck said. "But I bet you'll change your mind if push comes to shove."
Vogel did not respond.
"push comes to shove" は3/28/2009に取り上げていますが、その時は辞書で確認しなかったので、今日は辞書の説明を見ます。
辞書には "when push comes to shove" の項で説明があります。
・Oxford English Dictionary: When one must commit oneself to an action or decision.: ‘when push came to shove, I always stood up for him’
・Wiktionary: When the pressure is on; when the situation is critical or urgent; when the time has come for action, even if it is difficult. He is not a particularly talented builder, but when push comes to shove, he can usually get the job done.

steel oneself

ＳＦのThe Martian by Andy Weirを読んでいます。
"Have a good flight?" Venkat Bruce steeled himself and stood, picking up his briefcase. He pulled a booklet from it. "Bear in mind, this is the end result of thousands of hours of work, testing, and lateral thinking by all the best guyss at JPL."
"steel oneself" は10/28/2016に取り上げているので復習です。

kludge

ＳＦのThe Martian by Andy Weirを読んでいます。
But I didn't do anything to the soon-to-be-mutilated MAV today. Today was all about system checks. Now that I'm back in contact with NASA, I have to go back to being all "safety first." Strangely, NASA doesn't have total faith in my kludged-together rover or my method of piling everything into the trailer.
"kludge" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Use ill-assorted parts to make (something):‘Hugh had to kludge something together’
・Collins Dictionary: an unsophisticated but fairly effective solution to a problem; esp a computing problem: People outside of AI sometimes detect a programming kludge.
やっつけ仕事の様な、あるいは急場しのぎで直したにしてはうまくいった様なニュアンスがある様な感じですね。Wiktionaryに用法の注意が次の様に書かれていました。
Usage Note: Today, kluge and kludge are often used as alternative spellings of the same word, although a distinction in usage can perhaps be detected: in the UK, the connotation of kludge is almost wholly negative (as befits its alleged derivation), while US usage of kluge, following its alleged German derivation, admits some fondness or admiration for the cleverness or functionality underlying a working klu(d)ge.
英国と米国でニュアンスが異なるのですね。ちなみに作者は米国人なので良い意味で使っているのでしょう。

gimmes

ＳＦのThe Martian by Andy Weirを読んでいます。
Bruce pulled another copy of the booklet from his briefcase.
"There were some gimmes right off the bat. The design presumes five hundred kilograms of Martian soil and rock samples. Obviously we won't do that. Also, there's just one passenger instead of six.
"gimmes" の意味が分からないので辞書を引きます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A thing that is very easy to perform or obtain, especially in a game or sport.: 'the kick would hardly be a gimme in that wind’
・Cambridge English Dictionary: something that is extremely easy to do: That first test question was a gimme, for sure.

akimbo

ＳＦのThe Martian by Andy Weirを読んでいます。
Now fatigued, the astronaut stood with arms akimbo, looking up at the sleek lines of the engineering marvel before him.
"akimbo" は英語らしくないので以前に取り上げた気がしますが、記録にありません。そこで復習です。
・Oxford English Dictionary: With hands on the hips and elbows turned outward.: 'she stood with arms akimbo, frowning at the small boy’
・Cambridge English Dictionary: If a person's arms are akimbo, they are bent at the elbows (= the middle part of the arms where they bend) with the hands on the hips: He stood, arms akimbo, refusing to move.
"arms akimbo" として使う場合が多い様です。"akimbo" について、Word Detectiveでも取り上げています。http://www.word-detective.com/091400.html#akimbo

juice

ラグビーの大学選手権、明治は惜しくも優勝を逃しましたが、強さが久しぶりに復活してきた様子が分かりました。
さて、ＳＦのThe Martian by Andy Weirを読んでいます。
Problem is, they soak up a lot of power, and they have to run all day long. The rover batteries have 18 kilowatt-hours of juice. The oxygenator alone uses 44.1 kilowatt-hours per sol. See my problem? この "juice" の意味は既にしっかりと覚えています。 6/10/2011に取り上げました。

coffee klatches

Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'The Nicest Places in America' から引用します。
He works out every morning at the local civic center--he's far less imposing in gym shorts than in his uniform--and tries to hit coffee klatches and organized local events alike.
"coffee klatches" は以前（9/3/2013）に取り上げていましたが忘れていたので復習です。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A social gathering, especially for coffee and conversation.: Members of this regular klatch include two retired textile mill workers, a warehouse supervisor, a bus driver and a house painter.
・Collins Dictionary: A coffee klatch or Kaffee Klatsch is an informal social event at which people, usually women, talk and drink coffee.

ping

ＳＦのThe Martian by Andy Weirを読んでいます。
[18:09} SYSTEM: Last message sent 00h31m ago. Last message received 26h17m ago. Last ping reply from probe received 04h24m ago. WARNING: 52 unanswered pings.
"ping" はDOSコマンドやUNIXコマンドを使っていた二～三十年前に通信トラブルを確認するのに使ったことのあるコマンドですが、Windowsになってからは使ったことはないので、忘れかけている言葉ですが、ＳＦを読む人は知っている言葉なのでしょうか？
・Oxford English Dictionary: a) Query (another computer on a network) to determine whether there is a connection to it.: Try pinging or otherwise connecting to hosts on the remote network; the connection should behave no differently from before when you brought the tunnel up.
b) Send an electronic message to (someone): he just pinged me, pointing to a breaking news story
・Collins Dictionary: a system for testing whether internet systems are responding and how long in milliseconds it takes them to respond
これから仕事、ではなかった温泉旅行に出かけますので二日ばかりブログを休みます。