O. Henryの短編 'A TECHNICAL ERROR' からの引用です。
Sam Durkee had a girl. (If it were an all-fiction magazine that I expect to sell this story to, I should say, "Mr. Durkee rejoiced in a fiancee.") Her name was Ella Baynes. They appeared to be devoted to each other, as all couples do who are and have or aren't and haven't. She was tolerably pretty, with a heavy mass of brown hair that helped her along.
"tolerable" の普通に使われる意味からすると、許容範囲、我慢できる程なので "tolerably pretty" では少なくとも美人ではなさそうですが一応辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: fairly good, but not of the best quality: a tolerable degree of success
・Collins Dictionary: informal fairly good
・Cambridge English Dictionary: of a quality that is acceptable, although certainly not good: At their best the conditions in these prisons are barely tolerable.
Vocabulary.com:
Something that's tolerable is something you're able to live with. The best thing you can say about sleeping in a tent with your younger siblings might be that it's tolerable.
If you can tolerate something, or put up with it, it's tolerable. You can also use this adjective to mean "good enough" or "adequate." If your waiter asks how your meal is and you answer, "The pizza is tolerable," you're not giving a rave review; you're basically saying, "It's average" or "It's edible, but nothing special." Tolerable comes from the Latin tolerabilis, "that may be endured."
"fairly good" の意味でも使われるとありますが、少なくとも本人に直接、あるいは、いる場合に言える表現ではないですね。
Sam Durkee had a girl. (If it were an all-fiction magazine that I expect to sell this story to, I should say, "Mr. Durkee rejoiced in a fiancee.") Her name was Ella Baynes. They appeared to be devoted to each other, as all couples do who are and have or aren't and haven't. She was tolerably pretty, with a heavy mass of brown hair that helped her along.
"tolerable" の普通に使われる意味からすると、許容範囲、我慢できる程なので "tolerably pretty" では少なくとも美人ではなさそうですが一応辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: fairly good, but not of the best quality: a tolerable degree of success
・Collins Dictionary: informal fairly good
・Cambridge English Dictionary: of a quality that is acceptable, although certainly not good: At their best the conditions in these prisons are barely tolerable.
Vocabulary.com:
Something that's tolerable is something you're able to live with. The best thing you can say about sleeping in a tent with your younger siblings might be that it's tolerable.
If you can tolerate something, or put up with it, it's tolerable. You can also use this adjective to mean "good enough" or "adequate." If your waiter asks how your meal is and you answer, "The pizza is tolerable," you're not giving a rave review; you're basically saying, "It's average" or "It's edible, but nothing special." Tolerable comes from the Latin tolerabilis, "that may be endured."
"fairly good" の意味でも使われるとありますが、少なくとも本人に直接、あるいは、いる場合に言える表現ではないですね。
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