How To Make Money In Japanは一週間を経ずに読み終わりました。今日採り上げる慣用句でこの本からの話題は終わります。
But when the waitress handed me the wine list, and began to read the prices they charged, you could have knocked me down with a feather. In the case of the flowers of the Tax Bureau I only remember the smallest one, but in the case of the bottles of wine of this restaurant, I remember the one with the highest price, i.e. 300,000.
文中の "knocked me down with a feather" は文脈からするとびっくりさせたでしょうが、羽のように軽い、請求書で倒すと言う表現が面白い。辞書で意味を確認します。 しかし、中々この表現を載せている辞書は見つかりませんでしたが、American Heritage Dictionaryのサイトで "knock for a loop" にredirectされ、次ぎの説明がありました。
throw/knock for a loop, to astonish or upset: Her quitting the project really threw me for a loop.
Also, throw for a loop; knock down or over with a feather; knock sideways. Overcome with surprise or astonishment, as in The news of his death knocked me for a loop, or Being fired without any warning threw me for a loop, or Jane was knocked sideways when she found out she won. The first two of these hyperbolic colloquial usages, dating from the first half of the 1900s, allude to the comic-strip image of a person pushed hard enough to roll over in the shape of a loop. The third hyperbolic term, often put as You could have knocked me down with a feather, intimating that something so light as a feather could knock one down, dates from the early 1800s; the fourth was first recorded in 1925.
やはり、"knock down with a feather" は "surprise or astonishment" を誇張した表現
なのが分かりました。また、"throw/knock for a loop" は以前 2009/7/20 に取り上げた表現である事を思い出しました。 (Ref. http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2009/7/20 )
読む前から予想していた事ですが、How To Make Money In Japanのタイトルは買い手/読み手の注意を引くために作られた（恐らく著者ではなく、出版社が考えた）もので、本の内容は著者が見た当時の日本の経済、つまりお金にまつわる話題を誇張（あるいは偏見）を交えて書かれたものでした。
But when the waitress handed me the wine list, and began to read the prices they charged, you could have knocked me down with a feather. In the case of the flowers of the Tax Bureau I only remember the smallest one, but in the case of the bottles of wine of this restaurant, I remember the one with the highest price, i.e. 300,000.
文中の "knocked me down with a feather" は文脈からするとびっくりさせたでしょうが、羽のように軽い、請求書で倒すと言う表現が面白い。辞書で意味を確認します。 しかし、中々この表現を載せている辞書は見つかりませんでしたが、American Heritage Dictionaryのサイトで "knock for a loop" にredirectされ、次ぎの説明がありました。
throw/knock for a loop, to astonish or upset: Her quitting the project really threw me for a loop.
Also, throw for a loop; knock down or over with a feather; knock sideways. Overcome with surprise or astonishment, as in The news of his death knocked me for a loop, or Being fired without any warning threw me for a loop, or Jane was knocked sideways when she found out she won. The first two of these hyperbolic colloquial usages, dating from the first half of the 1900s, allude to the comic-strip image of a person pushed hard enough to roll over in the shape of a loop. The third hyperbolic term, often put as You could have knocked me down with a feather, intimating that something so light as a feather could knock one down, dates from the early 1800s; the fourth was first recorded in 1925.
やはり、"knock down with a feather" は "surprise or astonishment" を誇張した表現
なのが分かりました。また、"throw/knock for a loop" は以前 2009/7/20 に取り上げた表現である事を思い出しました。 (Ref. http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2009/7/20 )
読む前から予想していた事ですが、How To Make Money In Japanのタイトルは買い手/読み手の注意を引くために作られた（恐らく著者ではなく、出版社が考えた）もので、本の内容は著者が見た当時の日本の経済、つまりお金にまつわる話題を誇張（あるいは偏見）を交えて書かれたものでした。
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