play up

Never Let Me Goも最後に近くなってきました。今日取り上げるのは誰でも知っている単語ですが、次ぎの文での意味はどうも私の知らない意味のようです。
We deserved a bit of luck by then, because the day hadn't been going at all well. The car had played up on the journey out and we were an hour late for Tommy's test. Then a mix-up at the clinic had meant Tommy having to re-do three of the tests.
二つ目の文の "play up" の意味がさっぱり見当がつかないので辞書を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: to cause difficulties or pain for someone: The printer’s playing up again.; My back’s been playing me up all day.
・Collins English Dictionary: informal ( Brit ) ( intr ) (of a machine, car, etc) to function erratically: the car is playing up again
"play up" にこんな意味があるのですか。　英国英語とありますが、米国人にも通じるのでしょうか？ 上の引用文より３０ページ程後にまた "play up" が次ぎのように出て来ました。
I've known donors to react in all sorts of ways to their fourth donation. Some want to talk about it all the time, endlessly and pointlessly. Others will only joke about it, while others refuse to discuss it at all. And then there's this odd tendency among donors to treat a fourth donation as something worthy of congratulations. A donor 'on a fourth', even one who's been pretty unpopular up till then, is treated with special respect. Even the doctors and nurses play up to this: a donor on a fourth will go in for a check and be greeted by whitecoats smiling and shaking their hand.
この "play up" は先程調べた意味では通じません。　そこでまた辞書を引き直します。
・Macmillan Dictionary: to try to persuade people to believe that something is more important than it is: The newspapers have really played up the low voter turnout.
・Collins English Dictionary: to emphasize or highlight: to play up one's best features
確かに前に出てきた "play up" とは全く違う意味で使われていますね。英語は難しい。

pomposity

買ったは良いが、大きくて厚いので持ち歩きに不便（私は基本的に鞄を持ち歩かないので）な事もあり長年積読のままだった "A History of Western Society" を寝る前に１～２ページでもと、１年前（いやもっと以前からかも）から読み始めた歴史の教科書ですが、やっと全章読み終えました。もっとも全章といっても私が買った本は第２１章（THE REVOLUTION IN POLITICS, 1775-1815）から最後の章までで、３分冊の一冊だけでした。（参照 A History of Western Societyの概要は次のURLで読めます：　　http://college.cengage.com/history/west/mckay/western_society/7e/students/outlines.html ）
最後の章の一部を引用します。
History is full of such erroneous predictions, a few of which we have mentioned in this book. Yet lack of success has not diminished the age-old desire to look into the future. Self-proclaimed experts even pretend that they have created a new science of futurology. With great pomposity they often act as if their hunches and guesses about future human developments are inescapable realities.
"pomposity" は何度か見た事がある単語ですが、頭の中で直ぐに意味が出てこないので辞書を見ました。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: 1.:pompous demeanor, speech, or behavior 2. a pompous gesture, habit, or act: restaurant reviews that are written with a pomposity that will leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: too serious and full of importance: He's a pompous old prig who's totally incapable of taking a joke.; He can sometimes sound a bit pompous when he talks about acting.
そうですね。 "pompous" の名詞形でした。

skivvy

Jan.11付けのThe Japan Times Onlineメルマガの記事に気になる単語がありました。
Convict flees from Hiroshima Prison clad in skivvies A 40-year-old man convicted of attempted murder has escaped from Hiroshima Prison dressed only in his underwear, and police have launched a manhunt for the scantily clad fugitive.
"skivvies" がその単語ですが、意味は後に続く文で "underwear" と言い換えられているので判ります。　"skivvies" の単数形は "skivvy" と思いますが、意味も含め辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary:
1British informal a female domestic servant who performs menial tasks: I found a job as a maid-of-all-work, a skivvy.; a person doing work that is poorly paid and considered menial: I’m really the office skivvy
2 (also skivvy shirt) US & Australian a lightweight high-necked long-sleeved garment. a T-shirt or short-sleeved vest.
3 (skivvies) North American underwear consisting of a vest and underpants. [originally a US navy term]
・Collins English Dictionary:
1.slang mainly US a man's T-shirt or vest
2.(plural) slang mainly US men's underwear
3.Australian New Zealand a garment resembling a sweater with long sleeves and a polo neck, usually made of stretch cotton or cotton and polyester and worn by either sex
下着の意味で使うのは米国だけで、しかも複数形の "skivvies" として使うようです。

on an even keel

今日の単語もNever Let Me Goからです。
It wasn't until a few days later I came to see what a difference that trip had made. All the guardedness, all the suspicions between me and Ruth evaporated, and we seemed to remember everything we'd once meant to each other. And that was the start of it, that era, with the summer coming on, and Ruth's health at least on an even keel, when I'd come in the evenings with biscuits and mineral water, and we'd sit side by side at her window, watching the sun go down over the roofs, talking about Hailsham, the Cottages, anything that drifted into our minds.
"keel" に（船の）竜骨の意味がある事を覚えたのは、大昔ドイツからスウェーデンのストックホルムへ鉄道旅行をした頃で、意味もスペルも関係はないのですが、何故かドイツの港町Kielとの連想で覚えました。　しかし、その後実際の英文で "keel" を見た事はなかったと思います。上の引用文の "keel" の意味は何でしょう？ 辞書で調べると "on an even keel" と言う慣用句で次ぎの様な意味がある事が分かりました。
・Macmillan Dictionary: operating or happening without problems: My first job is to get things back on an even keel.
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: regular and well-balanced and not likely to change suddenly: The new manager succeeded in putting the business back on an even keel.
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: calm and not likely to change suddenly My main priority is to keep my life on an even keel for the sake of my two boys.
なるほど、"I hope that I can keep my life on an even keel at least for some more years." です。

in passing

リーダーズダイジェストの１２月号を読んでいたので中断したKazuo Ishiguroの小説 "Never Let Me Go" の残りの二章を読みます。
I'd first started hearing rumours about Hailsham closing a year or so before that meeting with Laura in the car park. I'd be talking to a donor or a carer and they'd bring it up in passing, like they expected me to know all about it.
上の文の後半に出てきた "in passing" は初めて見る表現なので辞書で調べます。
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: If something is said in passing, it is said while talking about something else and is not the main subject of a conversation: When asked if he had told the police about the incident, Mr Banks said he had mentioned it in passing to a detective.
・Vocabulary.com: incidentally; in the course of doing something else: “he made this remark in passing”
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: casually; said or mentioned as an aside. I just heard your name in passing. I didn't hear more than that. The lecturer referred to George Washington in passing.
通りがかりのちょっとついでにと言う感覚でしょうか。そう言う事にして覚えましょう。

goop up

Reader's Digest 12月号にあった記事に出て来た単語の意味を確認しようとしましたがどの辞書にも記事での動詞の意味は出ていません。　問題の言葉は次ぎの文にある "goop up" です。　
The technician seated me in the corner of the room. Tracy lay on a bed as the nurse explained that she had to goop up Tracy's belly to allow the ultrasound wand to slide about with greater ease.
この "goop up" はこの後の文にも次ぎの様に出て来ました。
At the hospital, a genetic counsellor took down our medical histories, then we moved on to the ultrasound clinic, where we were greeted by the attending physician, Dr Tessier, and two nurses. They gooped up Tracy's belley. When the image came up on the screen, the doctor and the nurses conferred.
辞書で "goop up"/"goop" を調べましたが動詞としての項目は全く見あたらず、名詞としての次ぎの説明があるだけです。
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: any thick liquid or sticky substance
・Collins English Dictionary: any sticky or semiliquid substance
・Vocabulary.com: any thick, viscous matter
・Wiktionary: (informal, usually uncountable) A thick, slimy substance; goo.
と言うわけで、困ってしまったのですが、考えて見ると超音波の検査では何か "sticky and semiliquid substance" を身体に塗りますが、この事を "goop up" と言うのに違いありません。　ただ、どの辞書にもこの動詞の用法が見あたらないのが不思議です。

What to Address Your Wife

I was really impressed when I heard my 70-year-old friend call his wife names like 'sweet' and 'honey'. When I was alone with him, I told him so. He replied, "I forgot her name years ago, and I've been too scared to ask her."

考えて見ると私を含め多くの日本人は配偶者を名前で呼ばない気がします。

toe jam

薬を飲んでいるお陰で熱は下がり、４日分の薬を飲み終わる頃には風邪も完治するでしょう。
さて今日の本題は病気（？）に関係する記事からの表現です。
Reader's Digest 12月号に "Worried Sick" と題された病気についての相談特集がありました。　次ぎの相談はその内の一つです。
Dear Dr. Billy,
I'm embarrassed to even write about this because it's a little gross. I keep coughing up these stinky little white things. They look like corn kernels but smell like toe jam. What are these white clumps in my throat?
嫌な臭いのする "toe jam" （足指のジャム）とは何でしょうか？　辞書で確認します。
・Wiktionary: Sticky matter accumulated between digits of a foot.
・Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions: a nasty, smelly substance that collects between the toes of unwashed feet. : Wash your feet, you turkey! I don't want you getting all your toe jam all over the room!
なーんだですね。　しかし、足指に溜まった垢をジャムに例えるとは。 そんな腐ったようなジャムは見た事がないので想像できません。

Wellies and Wellingtons

息子の飲み残した風邪薬を飲んだら風邪は治ったと思ったのですが、二日分の薬が切れたらまた風邪が再発してしまい、しかたなく昨日医者に行き新しい処方箋で４日分の薬をもらって来ました。これで風邪はなんとかなるでしょう。
さて、Never Let Me Goには当然ですが、英国特有の言葉や単語が出てきます。次ぎの場面にも多分米国人には分からないだろうと思う単語が出て来ました。
I turned to see him in his bare feet, perched awkwardly on a bit of dry ground surrounded by huge puddles, one hand on the side of the barn to keep hs balance.
'What happened to your Wellie, Tommy?' I asked. Aside from his bare feet, he was dressed in his usual thick jumper and jeans.
"Wellie" ですが、大文字で始まっているのでブランド名もしくは最初に作った人、地名等から来た英国特有の言葉と推定します。辞書で確認します。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: chiefly British: wellington -usually used in plural
・American Heritage Dictionary: chiefly British pl. wellies: A Wellington boot. Often used in the plural.
・Wikipedia: The Wellington boot, also known as rubber-boots, wellies, wellingtons, topboots, billy-boots, gumboots, gummies, barnboots, wellieboots, muckboots, sheepboots, shitkickers, or rainboots are a type of boot based upon leather Hessian boots. They were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. This novel "Wellington" boot then became a fashionable style emulated by the British aristocracy in the early 19th century.
単に長靴を思い起こせば良いと思います。Wikipediaには写真付きで更に解説がありますが省略します。
Never Let Me Goにも先に引用文のちょっと後で "Wellingtons" が次ぎの様に出て来ました。
Just nearby, his Wellingtons were lying fallen on their sides, his football socks peeking out of the tops.

P.S. Reader's Digest December 2011 の特集記事 2011 Asian of the Yearの中でこの "Wellies"/"Wellington" が次のように出て来ました。
"Suddenly we realised that the students were coming to school in their Wellies, Ng recalls, smiling and using the common English phrase for Wellington or rubber boots.

a stage whisper

今日もNever Let Me Goの場面から引用します。
Ruth shrugged and exchanged glances with Chrissie.
'Well,' she said, 'there's no reason we've got to go round together the whole time. If little Miss here doesn't want to join us, she doesn't have to. Let her go off by herself.' Then she leaned over to Chrissie and said in a stage whisper: That's always the best way when Kathey's in a mood. Leave her alone and she'll walk it off.'
"a stage whisper" とはどんな "whisper" でしょうか？
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
1: a loud whisper by an actor that is audible to the spectators but is supposed for dramatic effect not to be heard by one or more of the actors
2: an audible whisper: I've had more than I can stand,” she complained in a stage whisper.
・Wiktionary:
n. A line that is performed on stage as if it were whispered, but is spoken loud enough that the audience can hear.
v. alternative spelling of stage-whisper.
聞えよがしの話方に近いですね。