English Collection

日頃目に付いた覚えたい英単語、慣用句などの表現についてのメモです。

canker sore

2024年04月24日 | 英単語
Reader's Digest 2月号の記事 "LIFE in these United States" からの引用です。

While we drove to the park my young nephew said, "I have a big canker sore in my mouth."
My concerned 3-year old son asked, "Is that a type of dinosaur?"

米国の子供も恐竜が好きなんですね。口の中に痛みがあると言っているので "canker sore" は口内炎かなと思いますが、辞書で "canker" を確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (also canker sore (both North American English), British English mouth ulcer) a small painful area in the mouth
・Collins Dictionary: an ulcerlike sore, esp. in the mouth: thought to be an immune reaction see also cold sore: also canker sore
詳しい説明がVocabulary.comにありました。
・Vocabulary.com: A canker is a kind of sore. Some people are prone to getting cankers on their mouths. Canker can also refer to anything that is terrible and difficult to get rid of. Your parents might complain that the abandoned, run-down house two blocks away is a canker on your neighborhood.
In medicine, cankers are ulcers that are difficult to treat (the word is closely related to cancer). In agriculture, canker refers to a fungal disease that attacks the bark of trees. If one kid in your class misbehaves, and everyone suddenly follows his lead, that kid could be described (by your teachers) as a canker.

上記説明の最後に掛かれている「組織内部の障害・人」を日本語では通常「がん」と言いますが、英語では "canker" とも言うのは語源が元々 "cancer" と同じなのだからですね。

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