elephant in the room

English Journal 12月号にイギリス英語の特集がありました。　私が今日取り上げる表現はイギリス英語に特有かどうか分かりませんが面白い表現と思いました。次に引用する文は不動産業に従事している男性の言葉です。
The banks are out of credit, the government's out of credit so where's the money gonna come from? So that's probably the main concern as to how we're going to avoid the elephant in the room.
"the elephant in the room" とはユニークな表現ですね。 "white elephant" を思い起こさせますが、部屋に象とはやはり厄介な問題を想像せざるを得ません。　辞書で確認します。
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) A problem or difficult issue that is very obvious, but is ignored for the convenience or comfort of those involved.
・Dictionary.com: a difficult situation that is very obvious but not discussed or addressed
Example: The elephant in the room between couples is often money or what to do with aging parents.
"the elephant in the room" は元々は米国発の表現である "the elephant in the living room" を英国人が、"the elephant in the room" と短くしたそうです。 この表現のユニークなのは、部屋に象がいれば誰にもその存在は分かる様に明らかな問題なのに、誰もがその事を話題にしたくないと言う意味があることです。　詳しい説明は引用すると長くなるのでしませんが、World Wide Words ( http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ele2.htm )やWikipediaに詳細がありますので興味のある方はそちらを参照して下さい。

line one's pocket

"How To Make Money In Japan" から引用します。
I retorted that in a "country of economic animals," the fact that the people --in most cases garbage collectors--who find bundles of 10,000 bills invariably hand them over to the police, is astonishing, too.
"If you know the Japanese so well, you must be able to explain to me why common people who are not exactly rich let go such a good chance of lining their pockets."
引用文最後の "lining their pockets" は着服する事を意味していると推測できますが辞書で確認します。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to take money freely and especially dishonestly
・Dictionary.com: to make much money, esp. in an illegal or questionable way.
・American Heritage Dictionary: Accept a bribe or other illicit payment, as in The mayor and his cronies found dozens of ways to line their pockets. This expression dates from the mid-1500s, when it was also put as line one's purse.
必ずしも悪い手段で懐を暖めるだけではない様ですが、普通はやましい方法でお金を手に入れる場合に使われるようです。本の著者が、日本人は清掃員がゴミからお金を見つけた場合でも警察に届けて "lining their pockets" はしない、と言ってくれたのですが、つい最近のニュースでそうでは無い日本人もいる事が分かりました。 残念。

miffed

名前は知っていますが読んだ事も、映画化された映画も見た事のない、"To Kill a Mockingbird" についてのThe Book That Changed My Lifeと題されたReader's Digest 10月号の記事から引用します。
Don Noble, professor emeritus of English at the University of Alabama, wrote it this way in Critical Insights: To Kill a Mockingbird: "Most readers, over these intervening years, have not been miffed at his flaws.
この "miffed" が分からないので調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: somewhat annoyed; peeved: she turned around , looking slightly miffed; she was miffed at not being invited
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary: annoyed at someone's behaviour towards you; She hadn't phoned for a week and I was getting quite miffed.
"miffed" の原形は "miff" で次ぎの様に名詞と動詞になります。
・OneLook Quick Difinitions:
noun: a state of irritation or annoyance
verb: cause to be annoyed ("His behavior really miffed me")
図書館に "To Kill a Mockingbird" があればその内に読んで見たいと思いました。

railroad

How To Make Money In Japan by Domenico Laganaを図書館から借りて読み始めました。タイトルに惹かれて借りたのではありません。それにこの本を読んで金儲けができるとは全く期待していません。単にこの本の厚さが薄いので貸し出し期間内に読めると思ったからです。 How-To本の常として、余り難しい英語で書かれてはいませんがそれでも私の知らない単語や慣用句が時々出てきます。
最初に気になった単語が使われていた文を引用します。
And unless the working people of Japan, who did not even declare a protest strike when the same politicians railroaded the consumption tax, are earning salaries that would not be affected by it, it was hard to understand why they did not even try and refuse to pay it when it was imposed in a way which in the mass media was described as arogant, insolent and shameless.
日本で消費税が導入されたのは（もう忘れていましたが）ウィキペディアによると１９８９年だそうで、そうすると私が米国駐在から戻ったのがその前年の１１月だったので、既に同様な米国での税には慣れていたので余り気にならなかったのでしょう。そんな訳で引用文の "railroaded" に、強引に押し進めたのか、それとも別の意味があるのか見当が付かないので辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: [with object] informal rush or coerce (someone) into doing something: she hesitated, unwilling to be railroaded into a decisioncause (a measure ) to be passed or approved quickly by applying pressure: the Bill had been railroaded through the House
・American Heritage Dictionary: To rush or push (something) through quickly in order to prevent careful consideration and possible criticism or obstruction: railroad a special-interest bill through Congress.
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's English Dictionary: to force something to happen or force someone to do something, especially quickly or unfairly; We were railroaded into signing the agreement.
多数決主義の原理上、どの国の保守党も強引採決をするは避けられないようです。いずれにせよ、インチキ商法の契約には注意をしましょう。

decompress

昨日の東京は最高気温が７℃と寒く、冷たい風も吹きました。日の当たる我が家のリビングルームに居れば暖房は全く使って無いのに２３℃と暖かいので、ジョッギングに行くのにちょっと躊躇しましたが、土日は二日間卓球の試合があったので走れず、正月休みは毎日８日間ジョッギングをしたのに休みで1.5kg体重が増えてしまったので、気合を入れて１時間程ジョッギングをしました。２月６日の浦安ハーフマラソンまでには1kは体重を落とす予定ですが、体重は運動ではなく食事の量の影響の方が大きいですね。
さて、Reader's Digest 10月号の記事からです。FarmVille（コンピュータゲームの一種のようだ）を作った、Mark Pincus氏への次ぎの質問の意味が良く分かりません。
How do you and your wife decompress?
Good question. My wife has her own start-up, but we make a point of seeing each other every day when we're in the same town. Like a lot of busy couples, we have date night, and every weekend we have one limited-BlackBerry day.
冒頭の "decompress" ですが、コンピュータ用語にもなっているのでどうしても圧縮ファイルの解凍の意味が浮かんでしまいますが、上の使用例の意味とは合いません。そこで辞書を見ます。
・American Heritage Dictionary: Informal To relax: decompressed after 12 hours of driving.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to undergo release from pressure; especially : relax ; need a week off to decompress )
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary: US informal to relax; After relocating to Britain we'll need a few days off to decompress.
そうか元々 "decompress" は pressure を無くすことなので "relax" の意味になるのは当然でしたね。

libation and brine

昨日は深夜録画していた大学ラグビーの決勝戦を見ました。　準決勝での早稲田の圧勝を見て早稲田有利と思っていましたが、帝京大のフォワードは驚くほど強く点差は余りなかったのですが帝京大の圧勝と言えると思います。高校ラグビーの決勝も見たかったのですが残念ながらＴＶ番組に中継は載っておらず見れませんでした。後は社会人の決勝が楽しみです。
さて、今日採り上げる英語は "The Story of My Life" に出てきた二種類の液体を表す単語です。
The solemn nothings that fill our everyday life blossom suddenly into bright possibilities. In a word, while such friends are near us we feel that all is well. Perhaps we never saw them before, and they may never cross our life's path again; but the influence of their calm, mellow natures is a libation poured upon our discontent, and we feel its healing touch, as the ocean feels the mountain stream freshening its brine.
まず "libation" の意味を辞書で見ます。
・Compact Oxford English Dictionary: a drink poured out as an offering to a deity.
　[mass noun] the pouring out of a libation:　gin was poured in libation
　humorous a drink:　tequila is a favourite libation throughout the West
・American Heritage Dictionary:
　The pouring of a liquid offering as a religious ritual.
　The liquid so poured.
次に "brine" を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary:
[uncountable] water that contains a lot of salt; preserved in brine
the brine literary the ocean; the foaming brine
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
a: water saturated or strongly impregnated with common salt; The chicken was soaked in brine before it was roasted.
b: a strong saline solution (as of calcium chloride)
2: the water of a sea or salt lake; for hundreds of years people from Atlantic Canada have made their living from the brine
調べている内に "brine" は "silt" を先月２２日に取り上げた時に語源の説明文にあった事を思い出しました。
それはともかく、飲むなら "brine" ではなく "libation" の方が断然良いですね。いずれも重要な液体なので覚えて置きたい単語です。
これでヘレン・ケラーの "The Story of My Life" は読み終わりました。

Money

今年も日曜日はジョークを取り上げます。
今年は金運に恵まれるようにお金に関したジョークです。
Bank Teller: How do you like the money?
English Student: I like it very much.
これは初めて海外旅行に行った日本人旅行者の会話と同じですね。
Waiter: How do you like your steak?
Japanese Traveller: I like it very much.
もう少し具体的に高額紙幣が登場するジョークです。
A one-dollar bill, five-dollar bill, and hundred-dollar bill all died and went to heaven.
God saw the one-dollar bill and said, "You've been good," and lets him in. He also lets the five-dollar bill in for the same reason.
When the hundred-dollar bill came up to him, God said, "Well, I never see you in church."
やはり今年もお金には余り縁がなさそうな年になりそうです。

suck it up

Reader's Digest 10月号の人生相談コーナー、Dear Auntyで、夫の亡母が保管していた、子供の頃に作った本棚やら何やらガラクタを夫が沢山持ち帰ってきて閉口しているという妻の苦情に対するAuntyの回答です。
Oh, I know it's difficult, but suck it up and embrace the magazine rack. The poor guy just lost his parents. At times like this, some spouses do worse than cling to memories.
文脈からして、"suck it up" は我慢しなさいという感じですが辞書で調べます。
何故かこの用法を載せている辞書は俗語に強いUrban Dictionaryの一つしか見つかりませんでしたが、説明と例文を複数載せていたので冗長ですが引用します。
・To endure a period of mental, physical, or emotional hardship with no complaining.
　I don't care if you're sad, get out there, suck it up and deal with it!
・To cope with something unpleasant without complaining--usually because you have no choice.
Supposed to be pilot slang. If you vomit into your mask, you'd better suck it up. Otherwise, you can inhale it and die.
Bob's car needed a new engine. He couldn't afford an new one, so he had to suck it up.
Quit whining, suck it up and drive on.
・Military slang meaning to just deal with it and quit complaining
Suck it up private we have 10 more miles to go!
・A harsh term friends say to their friends so that they can feel superior and get their fragile friends to do whatever they're told. This is extremely annoying and hurts people deep down inside so it shouldn't be used unless you know it doesnt hurt them.
girl: Hey
Evil: why are you crying?
Girl: My life is falling apart, my boyfriend dumped me, my grades are falling and my parents hate me.
Evil: Stop being emo and suck it up, jeesh, you're depressing me.
Girl: (sniffle) sorry....

disfranchised

ヘレン・ケラーの "The Story of My Life" から引用します。
In a word, literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book-friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. The things I have learned and the things I have been taught seem of ridiculously little importance compared with their "large loves and heavenly charities."
"disfranchised" は "franchise" と関係がありそうですが、私の知っている "franchise" は特に飲食店に多い "franchise" ですが、ここではそんな事とは無関係な様です。 "disfranchised" と "franchise" を辞書で見ます。
・Dictionary.com("disfranchised"):
1.to deprive (a person) of a right of citizenship, as of the right to vote.
2.to deprive of a franchise, privilege, or right.
・Dictionary.com("franchise"):
1.a privilege of a public nature conferred on an individual, group, or company by a government: a franchise to operate a bus system.
2.the right or license granted by a company to an individual or group to market its products or services in a specific territory.
どの辞書を見てもこの程度の説明しかありませんが、ヘレン・ケラーは文学を楽しむ事については不自由ではないといっているのに違いありません。私の知っている "franchise" の意味は "the commercial licensing sense is from 1966" と最近の事で、選挙権の意味の方は古くからある事を今頃知りました。

get into a tizz/tizzy

今日から仕事始めです。正月は休んでいた英語の読書も会社の昼休みに再開します。ブログに投稿している英語の表現はいずれにせよ暫くは去年読んだ英文にあったものです。
さて、今日はReader's Digest 10月号のMy Storyから抜粋します。
So it was a shock when he developed prostate cancer in 1998, not long after I'd recovered from my own illness. He was 64 but very fit from running. After radiotherapy it looked as if he'd recover. Then one leg became swollen with lymphoedema - the cancer had spread.
But Tom never got in a great tizz about anything and just accepted the diagnosis, carrying on with life while having outpatient treatment.
文中の "tizz" が分からないので調べます。 "tizz" を載せている辞書は余り多くありません。
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's English Dictionary: send/throw sb into a tizz/tizzy informal; to make someone very upset, excited, or confused; The idea of producing a meal for fifty people threw her into a tizzy.
・TheFreeDictionary: send/throw somebody into a tizz/tizzy (informal); to make someone very upset, excited, or confused The idea of producing a meal for fifty people threw her into a tizzy.
"tizzy" とも書かれる様なので "tizzy" で再度辞書を見ると、"tizzy" はほとんどの辞書に説明がありました。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a highly excited and distracted state of mind; She's always getting in a tizzy over minor things.
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's English Dictionary: a temporary state of worry and confusion; She got herself in a real tizzy because she couldn't find her car keys.
"tizz/tizzy" 単独ではなく "send/throw sb into a tizz/tizzy" あるいは "get sb into a tizz/tizzy" で覚える方が良いようです。