お転婆 untameable

今年は都合により私は休会していますが、ASJ (Asiaic Society of Japan) のJuly MeetingでのProf. Hugh Wilkinsonの "Early European Loanwords in Japanese" の講義録がメールで送られてきたので読みました。
ポルトガル語、オランダ語由来の日本語が結構あることは誰でも知っていますが、Wilkinson教授の話に出てきた幾つかの言葉の由来は興味のあるものでした。その内の二つを今日と来週の金曜日に紹介します。
To take two more Dutch words, first randoseru preserves a historical form of the Dutch word ransel , which once must have been randsel , similar to the German Ranzen , Ranzel . Another word, but one that people would not take for a gairaigo , is otenba 'tomboy'; this is the Dutch ontenbaar 'untameable', and probably originally referred to a woman who could not be controlled, a jajauma !
「お転婆」はオランダ語の "ontenbaar " が元で、それが英語の 'untameable' の意味と同じとは！
'untameable' から「お転婆」になった訳ではありませんが、この話を聞いたら 'untameable' は「お転婆」と語呂が似ているので「お転婆」に聞こえなくもありません。

old-fogey

Reader's Digest 7月号にソーシャルネットワークについての記事がありました。その一部を引用します。
Here's the second secret of social media: everybody uses it for more or less the same reasons. Older generations often sign up to stay in touch with children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren. We talk about this kind of contact like it's some old-fogey activity, but it is exactly why younger people use social media.
"old-fogey" は前に "Older generations" とあるので、その世代の人間を示したいる様ですが辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A person, typically an old one, who is considered to be old-fashioned or conservative in attitude or tastes: 'a bunch of old fogeys'
・Collins Dictionary: an extremely fussy, old-fashioned, or conservative person (esp in the phrase old fogey)

fetch

Reader's Digest 7月号に書かれていた実話ともジョークとも取れる話です。
An elderly woman brought two stuffed dogs along to Antiques Roadshow, which was filming in her local area. "Ooh," said the presenter, "this is a very rare set. Do you have any idea what they would fetch if they were in good condition!"
The woman thought for a moment before answering: "Sticks."
私もこの女性と同じで、縫い包みの犬が "fetch" すると言われたら想像できるのは棒やボールですが、ここでの "fetch" には別の意味もあるに違いありません。
・Collins Dictionary: (also intransitive) to cost or sell for (a certain price)   ⇒ the table fetched six hundred pounds
・Macmillan Dictionary: to be sold for a particular amount of money, especially at an auction  (=sale where goods are sold to the person offering the most money): The painting is expected to fetch up to $220,000.
なるほど分かりました。

with caveats in mind

今日採り上げるは会社で購入している業界誌MEASURE（NCSL International発行）の記事The Economics of Accreditationにあった表現です。
These values, which have to be read with appropriate caveats in mind, are additional to the supplier benefits of ￡225m calculated in the previous section.
"caveat" は前の会社で働いていた時に読んだ契約書に出てきた様な覚えはあるのですが、上の引用文でどんな意味となるのか分からないので辞書を引きます。
・Collins Dictionary:
  1.(law) a formal notice requesting the court or officer to refrain from taking some specified action without giving prior notice to the person lodging the caveat
2.a warning; caution: Stan said right off, repeating the caveat he'd offered on the phone the day before.
・Vocabulary.com: A caveat is a warning. When someone adds a caveat to something they’re telling you to beware -- maybe what they’re telling you comes with certain conditions or maybe there’s something dangerous lurking.
When your new friend gives you directions to her house, and then says, “The caveat is that when it snows the driveway turns into an ice rink,” she's warning you that your travels could be dangerous.
Caveat is also a legal term for when a lawyer asks for a break in proceedings. If a lawyer issues a caveat, she's filing a formal notice to suspend a trial until her client gets a hearing.
以前契約書の中に出てきた "caveat" は最初に引用した辞書の1の意味で、今回の記事に出てきた意味は2ですね。

pony up

Japan Times OnlineのAugust 14, 2014の見出しJapan paid \380 million in compensation for accidents by U.S. military personnelの記事の一文を引用します。
Over the past decade, Japan has ponied up a hefty sum to help compensate victims of accidents caused by U.S. military personnel or civilian employees.
"ponied up" は文脈からすると支払った、又は肩代わりしたの意味の様ですが、辞書で確認します。
・Collins Dictionary: to give the money required: That said, better be ready to pony up more cash at the local electronics Mecca.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to pay (money) especially in settlement of an account: despite having good credit, the couple still had to pony up a large down payment for the house

passive aggressive

English Journalを図書館から借りて読んでいます。英文の個所しか読んでいないので、最初に読むのが漫画のライラのすてきな毎日（The Meaning of Lila）です。８月号のライラに興味深い表現がありました。ライラが母親からの電話で話している場面なので絵はなくても次に引用する台詞だけで意味は分かるはずです。
Mother: Hello, Dear. It's your mother.
Lila: Hi, Mom.
Mother: Your father and I are at a mortuary shopping for tombstones.
Lila: What?!
Mother: We need to be prepared, and we don't want burden you with funeral arrangements when we pass on. I'm trying to decide what to put on my tombstone and wanted your opinion. Should I go with "Loving Mother, never a Grandmother" or "Can't rest in peace"?
Lila: How 'bout "Here lies the Queen of Passive Aggression"?
興味深いと思った表現は "Passive Aggression" です。雑誌には訳文があり、ライラの最後の台詞は「それとなく攻撃する女王、ここに眠る」となっていました。
私は文脈から「嫌味」が頭に浮かびました。 "Passive Aggression" が一般的な表現なのか辞書を見ると、次のように説明がありました。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: of or relating to a personality　that harbours aggressive emotions while behaving in a calm or detached manner: Indeed, in the extreme, they can mask passive-aggressive behaviour.
・Wikipedia: Passive-aggressive behavior is the indirect expression of hostility, such as through procrastination, sarcasm, stubbornness, sullenness, or deliberate or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is (often explicitly) responsible.
多くの辞書で上の説明のように "Passive-aggressive behavior" の表現を項目としていました。
確かに年がら年中 "Passive-aggressive" な言い方しか出来ない人は病気と言っても良いでしょう。医学辞書にも "Passive-aggressive behavior" の項目がありました。
・Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary: apparently compliant behavior, with intrinsic obstructive or stubborn qualities, to cover deeply felt aggressive feelings that cannot be more directly expressed.

Riddle Me This

I am the begining of the end and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation and I surround every place. Who am I?

Reader's Digestに出ていた謎々です。
答えは来週までお預け。

Nature's bounty

I visited my daughter bearing gifts: summer squash from my garden. "What should I do with it?" she asked. "Whatever you would do with zucchine," I replied. "OK, we'll give it to our neighbour."

penny-ante

Japan Times OnlineのAugust 12, 2014の見出しObama should follow Nixon’s lead and do the right thingの記事を引用します。
By today’s standards, however, Nixon’s efforts to protect his henchmen, including his screwing around with the FBI investigation that led to an article of impeachment for obstruction of justice, look positively penny-ante, more worthy of a traffic ticket than a high crime or misdemeanor. Obstruction of justice, scandalous and impeachable just 40 years ago, has become routine.
上の引用文に出てきた "penny-ante" はどんな意味でしょうか？
・Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary: not important, valuable, or impressive: a penny-ante operation: penny-ante politics
・Cambridge English Dictionary: of little value or importance: He was proposing some penny-ante increase.
大事ではないとの事ですが覚えて置きましょう。

eidetic imagery

Reader's Digestの７月号がそろそろ借りれる頃なのですが、まだなのでUnderstand Psychologyを読んでいます。また興味のある単語が出てきました。
Children tend to use iconic imagery a great deal. They remember what things looked like, very cleary and, sometimes, even photographically. About one in ten children have eidetic imagery - visual memories that are so clear that they are almost photographic. But this usuary disappear with puberty, and the number of adults with eidetic memory is estimated to be less than one in 10,000.
"eidetic" は visualとかphotographicと関係があるようですが、辞書の説明を見ます。 ・Oxford English Dictionary: Relating to or denoting mental images having unusual vividness and detail, as if actually visible.: ‘Many of those exceptional individuals who retained the ‘photographic’ or eidetic memory that is common in children but rare in adults, have had their lives blighted by their inability to forget unimportant details.’
引用文での説明とほとんど同じでした。しかし子供の頃にそんな能力があった記憶もないし、この話は日本では聞いたことがありません。でも数万人に一人はいる様なのでこの能力を備えた日本人もかなりいるのでしょうね。