beguile

My Fair Ladyを読み始めました。原作者が有名なBernard Shawだというのは知っていましたが、ミュージカル仕立てにした（Adaptation and lyrics）のはAlan Jay Lernerだというのは初めて知りました。
今日取り上げる単語はACT I: SCENE Iに出てきた "beguile" です。
As Eliza spins out her daydream, a few other FLOWER GIRLS and VENDORS are drawn on and stand silently listening. When she finishes, the four at the fire beguiled into the mood repeat the refrain as Eliza and the others act out a dinner in an expensive restaurant: the ordering, the wine, the food - and riding home in a taxi afterwards.
騙すという意味の "beguile" は知っていますが、上に出てきた "beguiled into the mood" は別の意味に違いありません。 辞書を見ると他の意味も出ています。
・Collins Dictionary: to charm; fascinate; to pass pleasantly; while away: As always with a Cirque du Soleil show the individual acts excite and beguile.: Behind a telephone he could charm, beguile , tease and persuade.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to while away especially by some agreeable occupation; to engage the interest of by or as if by guile: He beguiled the audience with his smooth and seductive voice.:
・Vocabulary.com: Beguile doesn't always mean that the person or thing beguiling is tricking you, but there is a sense with this word of enchantment that takes away the viewer's normal powers of judgment. A beautiful place or idea can beguile as easily as a person. You might be so beguiled by the idea of a picnic on the beach that you forgot there are two feet of snow on the ground.
なるほど、騙す意味との関係が分かりました。

trow

Reader's Digest 3月号に出ていた Twitter-friendly vocabulary から覚えたい単語の最後は "trow" です。 RDの説明は：
to consider to be true: I just saw a performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream in the Park - no greater bard than the Bard. I trow!
辞書の説明も見てみます。
・Wiktionary: 1.(obsolete) To trust or believe 2.(obsolete) To have confidence in, or to give credence to
この単語もまた名詞として .(obsolete, uncountable) trust or faithの意味もあります。
Twitter-friendly vocabulary には何故か古語を再び使い始める傾向があるようですね。

Two steps forward...

It's a ten-minute walk from my house to the pub. Weirdly, it's a two-hour walk from the pub to my house.

history buffs

Japan Times Online April 23のタイトルの意味が直ぐには分かりませんでした。
Buffs re-enact famous 1553 battle
記事を読みます。
Some 780 history buffs in samurai attire re-enacted a famous battle from the mid-16th century Sunday in Fuefuki, Yamanashi Prefecture.
...
According to organizers, about 40 percent of the participants were women, apparently reflecting the recent willingness of more women to openly claim they are history buffs.
やっと思い出しました。この "buff" の意味は、～ファン、～狂でしたね。

rue

Twitter-friendly vocabulary の三つ目は "rue" です。
to have second thoughts: I may rue this day, but I'm heading off to my first skydiving lesson.
"rue" はフランスではたしか道路の意味があったと覚えがあります。
さて、いつものように英英辞書で確認します。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: regret, sorrow: with rue my heart is laden
"rue" は名詞にも動詞にもなります。
・Collins Dictionary:
1.to feel sorrow, remorse, or regret for (one's own wrongdoing, past events with unpleasant consequences, etc)
2.(archaic) sorrow, pity, or regret: Tony Blair must rue the day he ever commissioned this disaster.

grig

Reader's Digest 3月号に出ていた Twitter-friendly vocabulary の二つ目は "grig" です。
happy-go-lucky person: As soon as 5pm rolls around today, I'll be skipping out of the office like a grig.
辞書での説明も見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a lively lighthearted usually small or young person
・American Heritage DictionaryA lively, bright person: Polly was happy as a grig, and all the others equally so
・A Word A Day: A lively, bright person.: I walked into my local branch of Boots the Chemists as merry as a grig, with a twinkle in my eye and an annoying whistle on my lips.

clou

Reader's Digest 3月号の単語クイズ欄、Word PowerはTwitter-friendly vocabularyの特集でした。Twitterには全く興味はありませんが、クイズにあった１４の単語の内、四つの単語を覚えたいと思いましたので取り上げます。（知っていたTwitter-friendly wordは三つしかありませんでした）　最初に取り上げる単語は "clou" です。
chief element of interest: All of you have completely missed the clou of the book: the male narrator wakes up as a woman halfway through!
上の文はReader's Digestの説明ですが、辞書の説明も見てみます。
・Wiktionary: 1.highlight 2.(core or punch line) point From French clou
・Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: That which arrests and holds the attention or the interest; the strong point; the chief attraction; the peg on which success depends.: Too much money to spend but no clou about marketing.: Everyone is saying that the Princess -- your sister -- is the clou of the ball.
短い単語なので直ぐ覚えられると良いのですが、意外と覚えるのに苦労するかも？

a tad

昨日取り上げたFat Cellの記事の続きの個所にも覚えたい単語がありました。
Back in his university days, when The Body played sport or cycled almost every weekend, his weight was under control.
His diet had a lot less sugar, and his brain listened to my leptin warnings, quashing his hunger whenever I managed to plump up.
Sure, I'd get a little ahead after a big weekend of beer and wings, inflate a tad.
"tad" とは何でしょうか？　連想するのは "tadpole" 位ですが、ここでは関係がないのは明白です。辞書で "tad" を調べます。
・Collins Dictionary: (US & Canadian) a small bit or piece: "Well, I cheated a little," Fiona confessed, lowering her voice a tad.
・Macmillan Dictionary: a little bit: Add just a tad more sugar.
ついでに語源辞典を見ると、何と "tadpole" と関係があったのには意外でした。
Online Etymology Dictionary: 1877, "young or small child," probably a shortened form of tadpole, which is said to be the source of Tad as the nickname of U.S. President Lincoln's son Thomas (1853?1871). The extended meaning "small amount" is first recorded 1915.

squirrel away

Reader's Digest 3月号のFat Cellからの抜粋です。
The Body's opening a can of cola now as he digs in to his lunch: low-fat microwave lasagne. He's trying to cut back, shed a few kilos - and hey, if you're trying to lose weight, it makes sense to eat less fat. But have you ever tried lasagne without butter or oil? Tastes like cardboard. So there's extra salt and sugar added to compensate, and it's still easy for me to convert some of that sugar to fat and squirrel it away. He has no idea!
"squirrel" をこんな風に動詞として使われているのを読むのは初めてですが、リスが木の実を隠しておく習性があるのを思い出したのでここでの意味は直ぐに分かりました。でも一応辞書で確認します。
・Collins Dictionary: tr usually foll by away (informal) to store for future use; hoard:
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to store up for future use ?often used with away: squirrel away some money
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to hide or store something, especially money, in order to use it in the future: As soon as I get paid, I squirrel some money away so I won't be tempted to spend it.
・Vocabulary.com: A well-known characteristic of squirrels is gathering nuts and seeds to store for the winter: you can say they squirrel away that food. You can squirrel things away, too, like squirreling away money in your savings account to use later. If you find a great sale on snow boots in the middle of summer, you might take advantage of the bargain and squirrel those boots away for your trip to northern Canada in January.
実は上の引用文で気になったのは "squirrel" よりも "lasagne" の発音が方が気になりました。日本語ではラサーニアと言いますが、外来語なのでスペルからでは英語ではどのような発音なのか分かりません。Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionaryで確認すると、日本語と余りかわりませんね。日本語と違うのはアクセントが "sa" の個所にある位でしょうか。

Infinite patience

A woman in a supermarket is walking behind a grandfather and his badly behaved three-year-old grandson. It's obvious to her that he has his hands full with the child screaming for sweets in the sweet aisle, biscuits in the biscuit aisle, and for fruit, cereal and soft drinks in the other aisle.
Meanwhile, Granddad is working his way around, saying in a controlled voice, "Easy, William. We won't be long...easy, boy."
Another outburst, and she hears the grandfather calmly say, "It's OK, William. Just a couple more minutes and we will be out of here. Hang in there boy."
At the checkout, the little terror is throwing items out of the cart, and Granddad says again in a controlled voice, "William, William, relax, pal. Don't get upset. We'll be home in five minutes. Stay cool, William"
Very impressed, the woman goes outside to where the grandfather is loading his groceries and the boy into the car. "It's none of my business," she says, "but you were amazing in there. I don't know how you did it. That whole time, you kept your composure, and no matter how loud and disruptive he got, you just calmly kept saying things would be OK. William is very lucky to have you as his grandpa."
"Thanks," replied the grandfather, "but I'm William. The little twerp's name is Kevin."
育爺は大変ですね。