at the coalface

English Journal１２月号のEJインタビュー記事はBBCの対談番組、HARDtalkのメインプリゼンター、Stephen Sackurとの対談記事でしたがその中に興味を覚えた単語がありました。
And I loved the challange of gathering news at the coalface if you like.
早速 "coalface" を辞書で引きましたが米国の辞書にはどれも "the part of a coal seam that is being cut" と文字通りの意味しか載っていませんでした。英国の辞書を見ると、イデオム "at the coalface" で次ぎの様な説明がありました。
Cambridge International Dictionary: at the coalface British & Australian
someone who is at the coalface is doing the work involved in a job, not talking about it, planning it, or controlling it
例：　You sit in your office looking at consultants' reports, but it's the men and women at the coalface who really understand the business.
COED: at the coalface; engaged in work in a particular field at an active rather than theoretical level.
日本語で言う現場と同じですね。

tuft of lettuce

子供の読み物 "Stuart Little" からです。
Stuart tucked his skates into hid shirts, stepped gingerly onto a tuft of lettuce, and took a firm grip on Margalo's ankles.
"gingerly" も中々覚えられない単語ですが("gingerly"=OneLook Quick Definitions: with extreme care or delicacy ("They proceeded with gingerly footwork over the jagged stones") "tuft of lettuce" と言う表現に興味を覚えました。
"tuft" を辞書で見ると：
OneLook Quick Definitions:　a bunch of hair or feathers or growing grass
Dictionary.com:
・a bunch or cluster of small, usually soft and flexible parts, as feathers or hairs, attached or fixed closely together at the base and loose at the upper ends.
・a cluster of short-stalked flowers, leaves, etc., growing from a common point.
レタスはたしかに柔らかな葉の房なので上のどれにも当てはまりますね。　"tuft of" は覚えておきたい。

Welsh onion

The Nikkei Weekly, Nov.17の記事からです。
Nagasaki Champon Ringer Hut restaurants are phasing in the use of domestic leeks in dumplings. Ringer Hut also aims to switch its supplies entirely to homegrown vegetables, including Welsh onions for dumplings and its mainstay noodle dishes, next fiscal year.
餃子の具の事の様なので "Welsh onions" はネギを示していると思うが、この文の前の文では "leek" が使われていて、米国で見た "leek" は日本のネギと比べるとかなり短いネギでした。ネギは "green onion" でも良いと聞いたことがあるが、いずれにしても "Welsh onions" の正体を確認しておこう。
OneLook Quick Definitions:　
Welsh onions: Asiatic onion with slender bulbs; used as early green onions
green onions: young onion before the bulb has enlarged
leek: plant having a large slender white bulb and flat overlapping dark green leaves; used in cooking; believed derived from the wild Allium ampeloprasum
違いは余り分かりませんね。
Wikipediaには次ぎの様な説明があります。
The Welsh onion is widely used in cooking. It is a particularly important ingredient in Asian cuisine, especially in East and Southeast Asia. It is used in Russia in the spring for adding green leaves to salads. In Japan it is used in miso soup, negimaki (beef and scallion rolls) and in the takoyaki dumpling dish, among others.
たこ焼きにネギって入っていましたっけ？
A scallion, also commonly known as spring onion, green onion or salad onion, is associated with various members of the genus Allium that lack a fully-developed bulb. Harvested for its taste, they tend to be milder than other onions and may be steamed or set in salads in western cookery and cooked in many Asian recipes. Diced scallions are often used in soup, noodle and seafood dishes, and in sauces in eastern dishes, after removing the bottom quarter-inch or so of the root end.
The species most commonly associated with the name is the Welsh onion, Allium fistulosum.
インターネット上でこれらの写真を幾つか見ましたが、"leek" を除き "Welsh onion", "green onion"と "scallion" はいずれも日本の長ネギと大体同じようでした。

orange pulp

子供の読み物 "Stuart Little" からです。
He had egg on his trousers, butter on his cap, gravy on his shirt, orange pulp in his ear, and banana peel wrapped around his waist.
"orange pulp" とありますがパルプと言うと紙パルプしか知らないのですが、"orange pulp" はオレンジの外皮と実の袋の間にある繊維状のものを示すような気がするのですが同でしょうか？
辞書では "orange pulp" は見つからなかったので "pulp" で調べると、
OneLook Quick Definitions: a soft moist part of a fruit
Dictionary.com:　the soft, juicy, edible part of a fruit.
とありました。　これっていわゆる果肉の事ですよね。　"orange juice with pulp" というと、（果肉）粒入りオレンジジュースの事のようです。　チャンスがあれば実物で確かめたい。

go overboard

今日の話題もReader's Digest, Oct. 2008号のADS INFINITUMと題した記事からです。
余り面白い話とは思いませんでしたが覚えたい単語が使われていたので引用します。
Granted, not everyone yearns to work with cattle. But this ad in the Whatcom(Washington) Independent went overboard in making these bovines as appealing as possible: "Wanted - men to take care of cows that do not smoke or drink."
"bovine"（of or pertaining to the subfamily Bovinae, which includes cattle, buffalo, and kudus.） は狂牛病(mad cow disease: bovine spongiform encephalopathy: BSE)が流行った頃に覚えた単語で今日の話題ではなく "overboard" が今回覚えたい単語です。
OneLook Quick Definitions:　to extremes ("He went overboard to please his in-laws")
Dictionary.com:(Idiom) go overboard, to go to extremes, esp. in regard to approval or disapproval of a person or thing: I think the critics went overboard in panning that new show.
やり過ぎ、言い過ぎの意味の場合は "go overboard" と使われるのですね。

spoonerism

あけましておめでとうございます。
エジプト旅行から帰ってきました。　これまで映像で見て想像していたピラミッドですが、実物は本当に大きく４千年も昔の古代人がどの様にして造ったのかやはり不思議です。
さて、１年ちょっと前にFreudian slip と malapropismを話題にしましたが、これまた似たような言葉使いの誤り（故意？）を表す "spoonerism" と言う単語がある事を知りました。 辞書で "spoonerism" を見ると：
・Dictionary.com: the transposition of initial or other sounds of words, usually by accident, as in a blushing crow for a crushing blow.
・The American HeritageR Dictionary: A transposition of sounds of two or more words, especially a ludicrous one, such as Let me sew you to your sheet for Let me show you to your seat.
・Online Etymology Dictionary
1900, but perhaps as early as 1885, involuntary transposition of sounds in two or more words (cf. "a well-boiled icicle" for "a well-oiled bicycle;" "scoop of boy trouts" for "troop of Boy Scouts"), in allusion to the Rev. William A. Spooner (1844-1930), warden of New College, Oxford, who was famous for such mistakes.
エジプト旅行の道中で読んだリーダーズダイジェスト１０月号の連載記事Word Power（単語に関するクイズです）の中に　"pangram"(phrase using all 26 letters of the alphabet), "retronym"(modified name for an old item), "malapropism" (comic misuse of language) と共に "spoonerism" もありました。
"spoonerism" の意味は：
A: saying "wabbit" for "rabbit."
B: saying "right lane" for "light rain."
C: saying "I scream" for "ice cream."
A, B, C のどれでしょう？