Airline Announcement

On landing, a Westjet stewardess was heard to say:
"Please be sure to take all of your belongings. If you're going to leave anything, please make sure it's something we'd like to have."
こう言うアナウンスを実際に聞いてみたいですね。

lay for me

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINNの一節です。
When he had got out on the shed, he put his head in again, and cussed me for putting on frills and trying to be better than him; and when I reckoned he was gone, he come back and put his head in again, and told me to mind about that school, because he was going to lay for me and lick me if I didn't drop that.
この文の "lick" は "なめる"では無く "殴る" 意味だと思いますが、"lay for me" が分からないので辞書を引きます。
・Dictionary.com: lay for, Informal. to wait for in order to attack or surprise; lie in wait for: The police are laying for him.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: lay for someone or something; to lie in wait for someone or something. The sheriff was laying for the outlaw. Bill was laying for me when I came out of the saloon.
"lay for" が "lie in wait for" の意味から来ていると説明されると良く分かるのですが、私には "lay" と "lie" の関係、区別、使い訳が頭の中で混乱して来ます。　深く考えず、似たようなものだで済ますことにします。もちろん活用形は受験時代に覚えたはずですが。

CAPTCHA

次ぎの文はリーダーズダイジェスト2月号にあった "CAPTCHA" と言う略語の説明です。
CAPTCHA is an acronym for "Completelly Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart".
この説明だけではまだ "CAPTCHA"が何かピンとこなくても、画像を見れば、インターネットを使っている方ならば誰でもあの文字の事かと直ぐに分かるはずです。　私もあれが "CAPTCHA" と呼ばれる事はこの記事を読むまで知りませんでした。　
下記はWikipedia、 "CAPTCHA" の項の最初の説明文です。
A CAPTCHA or Captcha is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer.

hifalutin/highfalutin

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINNの一節です。
Who told you you might meddle with such hifalut'n foolishness, hey? - who told you you could?
この "hifalut'n" は前にもどこかで見たことのある単語ですが、その意味を直ぐには思い出せません。辞書を引きました。"hifalut'n" は普通は "highfalutin" または　"hifalutin/hifalutin'"のスペルが使われるようでその意味は：
・American Heritage Dictionary: Pompous or pretentious: "highfalutin reasons for denying direct federal assistance to the unemployed" affectedly genteel
・Dictionary.com: pompous; bombastic; haughty; pretentious.
語源は多くの単語と同様によく分かっていないようですが、American Heritage Dictionaryに次ぎの記載がありました。
H.L. Mencken, in his famous book The American Language, mentions highfalutin as an example of the many native U.S. words coined during the 19th-century period of vigorous growth. Although highfalutin is characteristic of American folk speech, it is not a true regionalism because it has always occurred in all regions of the country, with its use and popularity spurred by its appearance in print. The origin of highfalutin, like that of many folk expressions, is obscure. It has been suggested that the second element, -falutin, comes from the verb flute--hence high-fluting, a comical indictment of people who think too highly of themselves.
米国生まれの単語でフルートとの関係を頭に入れればこの単語を覚えられるかな。

ratchet up

The Japan Times Online, March 24, 2010からのキャプションです。
PlayStation's Move ratchets up gaming interaction, fidelity
"ratchets up" が分からないので記事を読みましたが、ゲームの事はさっぱり分からないせいか、記事を読んでも"ratchets up"の意味は分かりませんでしたので辞書を引きます。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: move by degrees in one direction only ("A ratcheting lopping tool")
・Dictionary.com: to move by degrees (often fol. by up or down): to ratchet prices up; Interest rates have been ratcheting downward.
そう言えば記事に次ぎの文がありました。
There's another level of interaction and kinetic fidelity with many of these titles because the system uses a PlayStation Eye camera and can make players part of the game.
新しいゲームができ動きがスムーズになったので、つまりゲーム機の性能が一段向上したので "ratchets up" を使用したのですね。

investiture

Asiatic Society of Japanのmonthly bulletinは他では余り見かける事のない文体で書かれています。２月に開かれた総会についての記事から幾つか引用します。
・The new year got off to a good start with the annual general meeting held at the British Ambassador's residence, kindly placed at our disposal by the Ambassador, Mr. David Warren, who was also our speaker. Among those attending were our honorary patron, H.I.H. Princess Takamado, and two other ambassadors, the Dutch Ambassador, Dr. Philip de Heer, and the Luxembourg Ambassador, Mr. Paul Steinmetz; also three former ambassadors, Dr. Aftab Seth of India, and Prof. Takeo Iguchi and Mrs. Hisami Kurokochi, all of whom spoke up later during the question and answer session.
・Prof. Morton, this time as President, now called upon those present to express their appreciation of his predecessor, Dr. C. Lee Colegrove, and then introduced our speaker, Mr. David Warren, who had taken as his subject "The Role of an Ambassador in Modern Times".
何か仰々しいと言うか、大げさな言い様に感じるのですが。
・So, what did he not do as an ambassador? In the old days, protocol--the ceremonial side of diplomatic life, the holding of receptions, investitures and other occasions requiring formal dress--was the central element.
この "investitures" は知らない単語なので辞書を見ます。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: 1. the ceremonial act of clothing someone in the insignia of an office; the formal promotion of a person to an office or rank 2. the ceremony of installing a new monarch
・Dictionary.com: the formal bestowal, confirmation, or presentation of rank, office, or a possessory or prescriptive right, usually involving the giving of insignia or an official title.
私には一生関係ない事ですがせめてこの言葉 "investitures" だけでも覚えたいです。

"miasmatic" and "putrefy"

私の英語の勉強は会社の昼休みと夜寝る前のほんの一寸の時間ですが、先日読み終えた "Psychology, Made Simple" の次に就寝前に読む本として "A History of Western Society" を読み始めました。　就寝前にベッドの上で読むので短いと５分、長くても３０分の時間で、しかも月刊誌のEnglish Journalが借りれた時はそちらを優先するので "A History of Western Society" を読み終えるには恐らく半年以上かかるでしょう。"A History of Western Society" と言ってもこの本はシリーズのＣ巻で1775年のヨーロッパ革命の時代から現代の歴史についての本です。 最初に取り上げるのは次ぎの個所です。
Reformers like Chadwick were seriously handicapped by the prevailing miasmatic theory of disease--the belief that people contract disease when they breathe the bad odors of decay and putrefying excrement; in short, the theory that smells cause disease. The miasmatic theory was a reasonable deduction from empirical observations: cleaning up filth did produce laudable results. Yet the theory was very incomplete.
知らない単語が二つありますが "miasmatic" は文中に説明があるので後回しにして、"putrefying" を調べます。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: become putrid; decay with an offensive smell
・Dictionary.com: to render putrid; cause to rot or decay with an offensive odor.
"miasmatic" は原形の "miasma" を辞書で確認します。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: 1. unhealthy vapors rising from the ground or other sources ("The miasma of the marshes") 2. an unwholesome atmosphere ("The novel spun a miasma of death and decay")
・American Heritage Dictionary: 1.A poisonous atmosphere formerly thought to rise from swamps and putrid matter and cause disease. 2. A thick vaporous atmosphere or emanation: wreathed in a miasma of cigarette smoke.
タバコの煙が嫌いな私としてはタバコの煙も "miasma" は納得できるし、 "miasma" も覚えられる気がします。

roundabout

Waiting my turn to enter a roundabout, I noticed a guy drive around twice, then leave by the same road he'd entered.
His vanity licence plate read: "GENIUS."
日本にはほとんどありませんが米国でも場所によって "roundabout" がある所があって、（米国では "rotary" あるいは "circle" と呼ぶことが多いと思います）私も苦手でした。初めて通る "rotary" に出入りする道路が五つ以上ある場合に目的の出口がどこかを走りながら判断するのはかなり難しい芸当です。

tributary

HUCKLEBERRY FINNの本文ではなく、覚えたい単語がまた注にありました。
The State of Illinois lay on the east side of the Mississippi opposite Missouri, in the great angle formed by the river and its tributary, the Ohio.
この "tributary" を辞書で見ます。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: a branch that flows into the main stream
・Dictionary.com: a stream that flows to a larger stream or other body of water.
main streamに対する支流はbranch (stream)だと思っていましたが "tributary" もあるのですね。

reciprocal

会社で取り扱っている製品のカタログにあった表現です。
Conductance (G): The reciprocal (1/R) of resistance, usually specified in Siemens (S).
この "reciprocal" が逆数を意味する事は全く知りませんでした。　逆数を英語で何ていうか考えたことはありませんが、少なくとも "reciprocal" は候補にも挙がらないでしょう。　逆に英米のネイティブで日本語を勉強している人に、数学的な意味での "reciprocal" の日本語として、逆数が思いつくとは考えられませんが？