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。

grist to the mill

2010年08月04日 | 英語学習
English Journal 7月号、Media VoicesのコーナーにあったNY1放送局のニュースからの引用です。
Alicon Park (British Social Attitudes manager): What we now find is that people are actually content with spending levels as they are now. Far fewer want to spend more. But I suppose the key point for politicians is that only about 8 per cent of people would want to see tax cuts and spending cuts on services like health and education.
Holt (reporter): And information like this is grist to the mill of politicians as they prepare for the general election, that's if they can get us out to vote.
"grist to the mill" で引っ掛かったのですが、 English Journalは英語勉強者の為の雑誌なので丁寧な注があり、 "grist to the mill"はもうけの種、利益、 "grist" は製粉用の穀物と説明がありました。
英英辞典で確認すると、 "grist to the mill" は "grist for the mill" とも言われる事がわかります。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: grist for the mill and grist for someone's mill; grist to the mill
Fig. something useful or needed. Bob bases the novels he writes on his own experience, so everything that happens to him is grist for the mill. Ever since I started making patchwork quilts, every scrap of cloth I find is grist for the mill.
・Dictionary.com: grist for/to one's mill, something employed to one's profit or advantage, esp. something seemingly unpromising: Every delay was so much more grist for her mill.
また、"grist" は元々製粉用の穀物の事ですが、"grist" を辞書で見ると次ぎの説明のように "grist" だけで "useful material"、 "something turned to advantage or use" の意味で使うことができるようです。
・Compact Oxford English Dictionary:
1 corn that is ground to make flourmalt crushed to make mash for brewing
2 useful material, especially to support an argument: the research provided the most sensational grist for opponents of tobacco
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
1 a : grain or a batch of grain for grinding b : the product obtained from a grist of grain including the flour or meal and the grain offals
2 : a required or usual amount
3 : matter of interest or value forming the basis of a story or analysis
4 : something turned to advantage or use ?used especially in the phrase grist for one's mill
早速この慣用句を使ってみます。
"English Collection" is grist to my mill.
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