ChandlerのTrouble is My Businessを読んでいます。
We sat with some of Miss Harriet Huntress' Scotch in our glasses and looked at each other across the rims. George looked nice with his cap off. His head was clustered over with wavy dark-brown hair and his teeth were very white and clean. He sipped his drink and nibbled a cigarette at the same time. His snappy black eyes had a cool glitter in them.
"Yale?" I asked.
"Dartmouth, if it's any of your business."
"Everything's my business. What's a college education worth these days?"
"Three squares and a uniform," he drawled.
最後の台詞にある "Three squares" が分かりません。辞書で "squares" を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A square meal: three squares a day: Mine was a lousy job. There must be a better way of making three squares a day.
・Wiktionary: (colloquial, US) A square meal. Even when times were tough, we got three squares a day.
なるほど、寄宿舎の三度の食事ですか。でも何故 "square" が食事の意味になるのかは分かりませんでした。
追記
Online Etymology Dictionaryを見ると名詞としての "square" に "As short for square meal, from 1882." とあったので "square meal" で辞書を引き直すとOxford Dictionaryに次の意味と語源の記述がありました。
A substantial, satisfying, and balanced meal
Origin: Said to derive from nautical use, with reference to the square platters on which meals were served on board ship.
これで一件落着
トータル
