昨日 "Where is the beef?" に一寸触れましたが、今日の単語もハンバーガーと関係があります。Reader's Digest 2月号に The New Bill Clintonと題した記事があり次の文はそこからの抜粋です。
As the 42nd President of the United States, he was lampooned, even by his allies, as a Big Mac-scarfing, saxophone-blowing sly Southern lawyer.
クリントン元大統領がBig Macが好きだったかどうかは知りませんが、この様に引用されるのはきっとBig Macが好きだったか、良く食べたからに違いありません。 そうすると "Big Mac-scarfing" の "scarfing" は "eating" と同じ様な意味の気がしますがどうでしょう？ 辞書で "scarf" の意味を確認します。
・American Heritage Dictionary: To eat or drink voraciously; devour: "Americans scarf down 50 million hot dogs on an average summer day"
・Infoplease.com: to eat, esp. voraciously (often fol. by down or up): to scarf down junk food.
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's English Dictionary: to eat a lot of food quickly; In no time, I scarfed down two hamburgers, French fries, and something to drink.
語源はイギリス英語の "scoff" が訛って "scarf" になった様です。
"eat hastily," 1960, U.S. teen slang, originally a noun meaning "food, meal" (1932), perhaps imitative, or from scoff (attested in a similar sense from 1846).
Oxford English Dictionaryを見ると "scoff" の意味を: eat (something) quickly and greedily と説明しています。
As the 42nd President of the United States, he was lampooned, even by his allies, as a Big Mac-scarfing, saxophone-blowing sly Southern lawyer.
クリントン元大統領がBig Macが好きだったかどうかは知りませんが、この様に引用されるのはきっとBig Macが好きだったか、良く食べたからに違いありません。 そうすると "Big Mac-scarfing" の "scarfing" は "eating" と同じ様な意味の気がしますがどうでしょう？ 辞書で "scarf" の意味を確認します。
・American Heritage Dictionary: To eat or drink voraciously; devour: "Americans scarf down 50 million hot dogs on an average summer day"
・Infoplease.com: to eat, esp. voraciously (often fol. by down or up): to scarf down junk food.
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's English Dictionary: to eat a lot of food quickly; In no time, I scarfed down two hamburgers, French fries, and something to drink.
語源はイギリス英語の "scoff" が訛って "scarf" になった様です。
"eat hastily," 1960, U.S. teen slang, originally a noun meaning "food, meal" (1932), perhaps imitative, or from scoff (attested in a similar sense from 1846).
Oxford English Dictionaryを見ると "scoff" の意味を: eat (something) quickly and greedily と説明しています。
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