4年前に "getup"（costume）の意味を覚えたはずですが、ハイフンを含んだ "get-up" がThe Glass Menagerieに出て来ました。
AMANDA: Sounds to me like a fairly responsible job, the sort of a job. you would be in if you just had more get-up.
"get-up" も辞書の項目にあるか確認します。
・Webster's New World College Dictionary: A get-up is an outfit or costume that a person is wearing, or high energy.
・Random House Unabridged Dictionary: costume; outfit: Everyone will stare at you if you wear that getup. （項目は "get-up" となっているのに例文は "getup" でした。）
Cambridge English Dictionaryは "get yourself/sb up" の動詞用法の説明が次ぎの様に先にありました。
to dress yourself or someone else in particular clothing, especially clothing which is strange and unusual and intended to achieve a particular effect: He'd got himself up as a Roman emperor for the fancy-dress party.
その後に "get-up" の例が載っていました。
He was in a sort of Mafia get-up (= set of clothes), with a pin-striped suit and wide tie.
日本は他の国ほど酪農は盛んではないので中国故事からの言い回しを除くと、牛馬羊などの単語を含む表現は、犬や猿を含む表現と比べて多くはない気がします。The Glass Menagerieの中に "cow" が二つ次ぎの文の中に出てきたのでそんな事が頭に浮かびました。
AMANDA: I'm brushing that cowlick down! [She attacks his hair with the brush.]
文脈からすると "cowlick" は前髪の気がしますが、辞書で確認します。
・Collins English Dictionary: a tuft of hair over the forehead: He had steel-grey hair that had been neatly combed to one side, although a tiny cowlick at the front gave him a slightly aristocratic air.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a bit of hair that always sticks out on someone's head
・Oxford English Dictionary: a lock of hair hanging or projecting over a person’s forehead: his hair was cut short with a cowlick dropping over at the front
・Dictionary.com: a tuft of hair that grows in a direction different from that of the rest of the hair: She had a distinctive cowlick on the right side of her forehead and a birthmark on her stomach---possibly on the left side.
癖毛を指している様事ですね。
The Glass Menagerieに出て来たもう一つの牛の表現を引用します。
JIM: So am I. Comfortable as a cow!
闘牛などを別にすれば牛はのんびりと草を食べている印象があるので、なんとなく分かる気がします。
At the head of the table was a large pile of apples.
The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray:
"Take only ONE. God is watching."
Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.
A child had written a note,
"Take all you want. God is watching the apples."
AMANDA: You certainly won't do anything of the kind. Nothing offends people worse than broken engagements. It simply means I'll have to work like a Turk!
この "work like a Turk" の表現はこの後で、実際に "worked like a Turk" として次ぎのように出てきます。
Amanda has worked like a Turk in preparation for the gentleman caller.
文脈からすると "work like a Turk" は一生懸命働く意味の様ですが、トルコ人が良く働くので有名とは聞いていない（失礼）ので辞書で確かめます。しかし、辞書でこの表現を説明した物は見つからなかったのでGoogleで検索したところ次ぎの説明を見つけました。
"Work Like A Turk": Oddly enough, this term has nothing to do with a person hailing from the former Ottoman Empire. "Turk" derives from the Irish word torc, or wild boar. For centuries torc has been used in Ireland as a term to describe a strong, temperamental man, or a successful prizefighter. In America, the word became "turk" and its meaning altered slightly to mean brawny laborer, hence the highly alliterative "work like a Turk."
(from http://irishecho.com/?p=48866)
やはりトルコ人とは関係無かったですね。
English Journal 7月号の記事、ニューヨークのTV局、NY1で報道されたSpecial Treatment for Some at American Airportsについての番組スクリプトに興味のある表現がありました。
Lewis Dodley (anchor): Frequent flyers at JFK Airport who wanna keep their shoes on and their laptops in their bag, can instead provide the government with a lot of personal information. NY1's Vivian Lee tells us about a new program aimed at speeding up security screenings at the airport.
Vivian Lee (reporter): Imagin skipping this: partially undressing just to get to your flight.
Flyer: It's really inconvenient. And I think that it's make-work.
Lee: Rachel Millner didn't have to remove her boots or belt or pull out her baggie of bottled liquids. Her American Airlines check-in agent told her she qualified for the Transportation Security Administration's newly expanded PreCheck program.
上の引用文にある "make-work" で引っ掛かりましたが、雑誌の脚注に、「不要な作業、人に何かをさせておくためだけの無用な仕事」とありました。ここで辞書を引くのは "make-work" の様な気がしますが、中々新しい単語の意味を覚えられない私としては、辞書で確認する事は多分無駄な仕事ではないと思います。
・Wiktionary: An activity or task assigned or undertaken for the sake of activity or busy-ness, rather than because of a particular need.: The assignment was simply make-work to keep them busy on a rainy day.
・Vocabulary.com: active work of little value: Two weeks before inauguration his op-ed in the Washington Post made it clear no make-work jobs on infrastructure.
・Macmillan Dictionary: work that is given to someone so that they have something to do
どこかの国のお役所仕事にもありそうな "make-work" ですね。
More than 200 American-made pens have been held in a warehouse at Chubu airport since April 2011 because Nagoya Customs has categorized them as defensive weapons.
Customs officials say the fountain and pens, produced by U.S. firearms and knife makers, will remain under lock and key until they are approved for importation as weapons.
...
But Gifu Prefecture-based Yamahide Cutlery Mfg. Inc., which imported about 1,000 of the pens between March 2008 and April 2011, is questioning why such approval is all of sudden required for stationery items.
なるほどこれでタイトルの意味は良く分かりました。知らない単語 "impounded" の意味も "under lock and key" と同じだと推測できます。
・Collins English Dictionary:
a.to seize (chattels, etc) by legal right
b.to take possession of (a document, evidence, etc) and hold in legal custody
Example: But Customs frequently impound carloads of booze despite drivers ' protests that it is for personal consumption.
・Vocabulary.com: take temporary possession of as a security, by legal authority: “The customs agents impounded the illegal shipment”
"under lock and key" は慣用句の様なのでこれも辞書で確認しておきます。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: locked away safely: Her jewellery is securely under lock and key at the bank.
-- If a person, especially a criminal, is under lock and key, they are being kept in a place from which they cannot escape, usually a prison.
・Dictionary.com: under lock and key, securely locked up: The documents were under lock and key
I did not have the courage! I wanted to find a hole in the ground and hide myself in it forever!
しかし、今日取り上げる単語は以前にも取り上げた "pinion" で、次ぎの様に出て来ました。
His arm catches in the sleeve of the coat as he struggles to pull it on. For a moment he is pinioned by the bulky garment.
私の知っている "pinion" は歯車と「赤毛のアン」に出てきて取り上げた鳥の羽根の "pinion"（wing of a bird; any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird）だけですが、上の "pinion" はそのどちらとも違います。早速辞書を見ます。
・Collins English Dictionary: to hold or bind (the arms) of (a person) so as to restrain or immobilize him: They grabbed Kathryn by the sleeve of her dress whilst another tried to pinion Thomasina's arms behind her back.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to hold someone, especially by the arms, to prevent them from moving: He was pinioned to the wall by two men while another one repeatedly punched him.
日本英語交流連盟(ESUJ)のEnglish Clubで（私は今は非会員です）、5年以上も前になりますが、元同時通訳者の村松増美さんから教わったオペレッタ、The Pirates of Penzanceの事がThe Glass Menagerieに出て来ました。
The Glass Menagerieで母親のAmandaはLauraの結婚相手を見つけようと息子のTomに勤め先の男を家に招待させます。招待された男は、Lauraの高校時代に皆から人気のあったJimと分かりました。
LAURA: Yes. His name was Jim. [She lifts the heavy annual from the claw-foot table.] Here he is in The Pirates of Penzance.
Jimは高校の学園祭で "The Pirates of Penzance" の役を演じていたのでしょう。
村松さんがEnglish Clubで何故 "The Pirates of Penzance" の話をしたかと言うと、英米人でもRとLの発音を聞き違える事があるという証拠のオペレッタだからです。主人公の乳母が "pilot" を "pirate" と聞き違えたので主人公は海賊になったのでした。
主な登場人物はナレーションも担当しているTom、一緒に住んでい母 Amandaと姉のLauraの三人です。
足に障害のある姉のLauraは精神的にも問題があるようで、職を持つための学校に行かせたはずですが、退学していた事を母のAmandaが知りました。
Oh! I felt so weak I could barely keep on my feet! I had to sit down while they got me a glass of water! Fifty dollars' tuition, all of our plans--my hopes and ambitions for you--just gone up the spout, just gone up the spout like that.
文脈からすると "up the spout" は無駄になったとの意味ではないかと想像できますが、私の知っている "spout" の意味とは離れています。辞書で意味を確認します。
・Collins English Dictionary: ruined or lost ⇒ any hope of rescue is right up the spout:
・Cambridge English Dictionary: wasted or spoiled: Peter lost his job so that was our holiday plans up the spout.
やかんのお湯が蒸気となって消えていってしまったと覚えましょう。
さて、日曜日はいつもジョークの紹介をしていますが、今日の話はReader's Digest June 2012号の At Work All in a day's workにあった実話（？）です。
My husband came home from work to find our two kids playing in the driveway covered in paint, a broken window with a hole the size of a tennis ball, every room of the house in a clutter of mess, and no dinner waiting for him.
Worried that something had happened to me, he rushed upstairs, only to find me curled up in bed in my pyjamas, reading a magazine.
"What on Earth is going on here?" he asked. I smiled warmly before replying, "You know how yesterday you asked me exactly what it is I do every day?"
He nodded.
"Well, today I didn't."
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