contained

今まで小説は余り読んだことが無いので、小説で使われている表現は知っている単語なのに色々な別の意味、ニュアンスの異なる用法が一杯あり苦労します。今日の単語 "contained" はDeath of a Salesmanで次ぎの様に使われていました。
LINDA: The insurance inspector came. He said that they have evidence. That all these accidents in the last year - weren't - weren't - accident.
HAPPY: How can they tell that? That's a lie.
LINDA: It seems there's a woman ... (She takes a breath as)
BIFF (sharply but contained): What woman?
早速辞書で調べます。
・Infoplease Dictionary: showing restraint or calmness; controlled; poised: She was contained throughout the ordeal.
"contained" を見出しにしている辞書は上の辞書以外は余り無かった（上記以外の意味ではありますが）ので、 "contain" で調べると次ぎの説明があります。
・Collins English Dictionary: to keep (one's feelings, behaviour, etc) within bounds; restrain
・Macmillan Dictionary: to control or hide an emotion; I couldn’t contain my excitement any longer.; Laura barely contained her fury.
"contained" は感情を抑えた、自制した状態を示せるようです。

palmist

昨日 "palm off" と言う表現を取り上げたので今日は "palmist" のジョークを紹介します。
A man went to a palmist to learn his fortune. The palm reader studied his hand for a long time and said, "For the next ten years, you will have a very hard time."
"Then what will happen after that?" asked the man.
The palmist looked at his hand again and said, "After that, you will get used to it."

palm off

RD Dec., 2010の記事 "Seriously Cheap People" の文中にあった "palm off" なる表現はかなりユニークな表現と思います。
Speaking of food, when Ray Lesser was growing up, his mother and aunt, who lived down the street, struck a deal. "Every Tuesday," he says, "they would trade each other's surplus leftovers and palm them off on us kids as a whole new meal."
"palm off" は慣用句に違いありません。　そこで辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to dispose of usually by trickery or guile; Please stop trying to palm off your leftovers onto me.
・Dictionary.com: to dispose of by deception, trickery, or fraud; substitute (something) with intent to deceive: Someone had palmed off a forgery on the museum officials.
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) To sell or dispose of (something) with the intent to deceive; to attempt to pass off a counterfeit or inferior product as genuine.
面白い表現ですね。Wiktionaryには由来の説明を次ぎのように載せていました。
“Palming” an object (as in a playing card) is a type of sleight of hand, secretly removing the desired article and leaving only the undesired one.
なるほど、手品から来た表現なのですね。

marquee name

次ぎの文はDigest 11月号のDita Von Teese と言う芸能人についての記事からです。
Von Teese(born Heather Sweet) became its marquee name, with Vogue calling her an "entrancing pocket Venus",
"marquee name" あるいは "marquee" は前にも見た事がありますが忘れています。今度は忘れないようにしっかりと辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary:
[as modifier] leading; pre-eminent: a marquee player [with allusion to the practice of billing the name of an entertainer on the canopy over the entrance to a theatre]
having or associated with the name recognition and attraction of one whose name appears on a marquee : big-name, star (marquee athletes) (marquee events)
・Merriam-Webster's Dictionary: having or associated with the name recognition and attraction of one whose name appears on a marquee: big-name, star (marquee athletes) (marquee events)
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary: being the main performer or sports person in a show, film, sports event, etc. or being the performer, etc. whose name will attract most people to the show, film, etc; The studio chiefs wanted a marquee name in the lead role, not some unknown.
名詞としての "marquee" に "a sign usually over the entrance of a theater or arena that displays the names of featured attractions and principal performers" があるのを見ると、日本語の看板スターや広告塔と似ている表現ですね。

geoglyph

３年前に覚えた単語ですがその後見聞きした事は無いので忘れていましたが、Jan. 20, 2011のThe Japan Times Onlineの次ぎの記事タイトルでその単語を見つけたので思い出しました。
Team finds more Peru geoglyphs
ペルーでピンとくる方もいるでしょうが、記事を読めば "geoglyphs" が何の事か直ぐに分かるでしょう。
A Japanese research team has discovered two geoglyphs on Peru's Nazca Plateau, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its gigantic lines and geoglyphs.
そうです、 "geoglyph" は地上絵の事です。 ナスカの "geoglyphs" はヤグラの上から見れる所もありますが、やはり小型飛行機で上空から見るに限ります。

odds and ends

"Death of a Salesman" の主人公 WILLYは稼ぎが悪く家計は火の車のようです。
WILLY: Ｉ’m not going to pay that man! That goddam Chevrolet, they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car!
LINDA: Well, you owe him three and a half. And odds and ends, comes to around a hundred and twenty dollars by the fifteenth.
WILLY: A hundred and twenty dollars! My God, if bisiness don't pick up I don't know what I'm gonna do!
上の会話に出てくる "odds and ends" は慣用句と思いますが文脈の前後からして「その他何だかんだで」と言う様な意味と推測できます。辞書で確認します。
・Macmillan Dictionary: small things that are all different and not valuable or important; a drawer full of odds and ends
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's English Dictionary: various things of different types, usually small and not important or of little value; I've taken most of the big things to the new house, but there are a few odds and ends left to collect.
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) Miscellaneous things.; The garage was filled with a random assortment of odds and ends.
もう２０年以上前になりますが米国駐在中私はChevroletのCapriceと言う大きな車に乗っていました。６年間でトリップメータが一周してゼロにリセットされる程乗りましたが、大きいので乗り心地が良く、長距離を運転しても全然疲れませんでした。しかし道路や駐車場の狭い日本では乗りにくいでしょう。

largesse

Land of Oil & Moneyと題されたReader's Digest 11月号の記事はサブタイトルに "Harsh, mountainous Norway used to be Europe's laggard. No more" と有るように、私は知らなかったのですが、ノールウェイは北海油田のお陰で豊かな国になったそうです。次ぎの文はその記事からです。
The largesse is passed on to the people largely through social services by a government that has a budget surplus and does not have to borrow.
"largesse" を知らないので辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary (普通のMerriam-Webster's Dictionaryより易しく、詳しく説明されています。この辞書は初めて見ました。） :
[noncount] somewhat formal : the act of giving away money or the quality of a person who gives away money -- He relied on the largesse of friends after he lost his job. -- a philanthropist known for his largesse [=generosity] ; also: money that is given away -- projects depending on a flow of federal largesse [=money from the federal government]
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary: willingness to give money, or money given to poor people by rich people; The national theatre will be the main beneficiary of the millionaire's largesse.
・Macmillan Dictionary:
generous acts of giving presents or money to a large number of people
money or presents given to a large number of people
ノールウェイは良い国ですね。中東の石油国も見習って欲しい。

accommodating

"Death of a Salesman" ACT ONE で主人公のWILLYが仕事から疲れて帰ってきて、奥さんのLINDAとの会話している場面からです。
WILLY: They don't need me in New York. I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England.
LINDA: But you're sixty years old. They can't expect you to keep travelling every week.
WILLY: I'll have to send a wire to Portland. I'm supposed to see Brown and Morrison tomorrow morning at ten o'clock to show the line. Goddammit, I could sell them! (He starts putting on his jacket.)
LINDA: (taking the jacket from him): Why don't you go down to the place tomorow and tell Howard you've simply got to work in New York? You're too accommodating, dear.
"accommodate" の意味として「収容できる」とか「適応する」、「順応する」は知っていますが、上の文章では "too accommodating" となっていて、一方、WILLYは現在の遠出の多い仕事はきついとこぼしているので、順応では正反対の意味になってしまう気がします。辞書で "accommodating" の意味を調べます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: helpful and easy to work with; I found the staff accommodating and knowledgeable.; We expected a more accommodating attitude during discussions.
・Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary: willing to do what someone else wants or requests; The chef can be very accommodating (=obliging), often cooking meals that aren't even on the menu.; She seems less accommodating to the demands of her boss than she used to be.
・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary: willing to do favors or adjust actions for others
Tips: Accomodating is derived from the Latin accomodare, "to make fit." The verb accommodate means "to make something fit, make room for something, or provide something that is desired, especially for guests." The related noun accommodation refers to whatever it is you are providing to guests to make their stay more comfortable.
なるほど。そうすると、引用文の "too accommodating" は「人が良過ぎる」と言ったところか。　「適応する」、「順応する」とは親戚ですね。

Breaking wind to coincide with the beat of the music

今日はジョークではなくRD Jan., 2011の投書欄 Laugh!;)に載っていた実話です。
I was in a restraunt yesterday when I realised I desperately needed to break wind. The sound system was really, really loud, so I timed it to coincide with the beat of the music.
I finished my coffee and noticed that everybody was staring at me.
Then I remembered. I was listening to my iPod.
事実はジョークより可笑し。

on the cusp of

Reader's Digest 11月号にあったFunny, You Don't Look Like Daniel Craig と題された、有名人と同名の一般人が経験する悲喜こもごもの話がありました。　副題は Sharing a name with a celebrity can be a blessing...or a curseです。　有名人と同姓同名の人が、病院で自分の名前が呼ばれると、回りの人間が一斉に顔を上げて自分を見るのが嫌だと言っているのを聞いた事があります。記事に出てくるのは米国の有名人なので私の知らない人が大半でしたが、記事中に興味の湧く表現がありました。
Marcia Clark - the budding publicist, not the former prosecutor - moved to New York on the cusp of the O.J. Simpson trial, when her namesake in California was busy trying to convict the former American football star of a double murder.
"on the cusp of" がイデオムの様なので調べます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: a time when one situation or stage ends and another begins; the problems confronting Africa on the cusp of the millennium
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a point of transition (as from one historical period to the next) : turning point; also : edge, verge; on the cusp of stardom
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary: the dividing line between two very different things; on the cusp of adulthood
覚えて置きたいイデオムです。元の "cusp" の意味も知らないので確認します。
・Wiktionary:
1.A sharp point or pointed end.
2.(figuratively) An important moment when a decision is made that will determine future events.
3.(geometry) A point of a curve where the curve is continuous but has no derivative, but such that it has a derivative at every nearby point.
4.(astrology) A boundary between zodiacal signs and houses.
5.(dentistry) Any of the pointed parts of a canine tooth or molar.