A fly is on the wall

約３０年前に米国駐在の餞別として頂いた次ぎのハンドブックを今も持っています。
A Practical Handbook of Common Mistakes in English Among Japanese Students and Businessmen
Irene & Yasuhiro Matsumoto あなたの英語診断辞書 - 英語における日本人共通の誤り - 松本安弘・松本アイリン共著　全９３８ページ　1976年出版
せっかく頂いたのですが、辞書の様な内容なので結局ほとんど読まず、但し大事に保存していました。数年前に一念発起して読み始め、最近やっと完読（と言うより一読と言うのが正しい）しました。どの項目も、「なるほど」とか「そうですか」とうなずくばかりです。例えば、"wall" の項目の説明です。
Strange: A map is on the wall.
Right: A fly is on the wall. There's a map on the wall.
前者は地図が蝿のように壁にとまっているように聞こえて可笑しいそうです。

countenance

Japan's Cultural Code Words, 「やくざ」の項、英語タイトルは "The Honorable Gangsters" から一部を引用します。
For most foreigners, Japan's famous yakuza, or professional criminals, represent one of the more conspicuous contradictions in Japanese mentality and behavior. The most common question asked by these foreigners is: how can the Japanese, from the highest echelons of the government down to corner policemen, as well as the public at large, countenance the existence of these criminal gangs?
"countenance" の意味として「顔つき」とか「平静」の意味は知っていますが、上の動詞の意味は知りません。辞書を見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to extend approval or toleration to : sanction: refused to countenance any changes in the policy: I don't countenance such behavior in children of any age.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to approve of or give support to something: The school will not countenance bad behaviour

draft animal

Japan's Cultural Code Words, 「馬が合う」の項、英語タイトルは "Harmonizing Your Horses" から一部を抜粋します。
In any event, from this period on, horses became increasingly important in Japan as draft animals and as military mounts, and eventually they played a key role in the development and spread of Japanese culture and the Japanese empire.
"draft animals" は初めて見る表現ですが、"military mounts" が軍馬を示している様子から、役畜を意味していると推測できます。辞書で確認します。
・Dictionary.com: an animal used for pulling heavy loads: With their broad hoofs, speed and endurance no other draft animal can travel so far or so fast in the snow.
・Wordnik: An animal, as a horse, mule, or ox, used in drawing loads.: This is a far cry from the draft-animal plowing, hand planting and hand harvesting performed by farmers in the 1700s.
上記は "draft animal" で調べたのですが、Vocabulary.comには "draft" の項に次ぎの説明がありました。
Draft means to draw, both in the sense of sketching an image onto paper, but also in terms of pulling??a draft horse draws or pulls a wagon, a draft of beer is drawn through the spigot on a keg.
A cold draft is a current of cold air being drawn indoors. To draft someone into the army means to draw them into service, or make them serve. When you are drafting, or writing, a draft of a paper on the military draft in the US, you want to let your ideas flow freely. Then, in your next draft, you can work on filling in holes and edit the language down to what you really want to say.
なるほど、 "draft" にはそもそも引っ張る意味があるのですね。

pall

Japan's Cultural Code Words, 「つき合い」の項、英語タイトルは "Bonding with Your Associates " の説明文に出てきた単語、"pall" は知らない単語ではありませんが、私の知っている意味、「棺」や「覆い」とは関係がなさそうです。　
In most companies, large or small, a sum of money is budgeted each month for tsukiai activities. In large companies the people authorized to spend most of this money are in marketing and sales jobs, but practically all managers have some kind of monthly tsukiai budget. Over the years I have palled around with Japanese friends who were authorized to spend thousands of dollars a month entertaining old clients and prospecting for new ones, and I benefited enormously from the custom.
辞書で "pall" の意味を確認します。
・Collins Dictionary: intr often foll by on to become or appear boring, insipid, or tiresome (to) ⇒ history classes palled on me
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to lose in interest or attraction: his humor began to pall on us
・Vocabulary.com: The noun pall comes from the Latin word, pallium, “covering or cloak.” This use of pall has come to mean "gloom" like your grandparents' not being there to celebrate with you that casts a pall over your graduation. The verb pall is used when someone or something becomes boring or less interesting over time, like your initial willingness to perform household that began to pall when you realize no one else wants to pitch in to keep things neat.
なるほど、関係がありましたね。

cat's paw

Japan's Cultural Code Words, 「手先」の項、英語タイトルは "Putting Up a Front Man"の説明文に面白い表現がありました。
A further aspect of Japanese behavior that is not common in the West, and which Westerners generally are not prepared for, is their custom of using tesaki in their dealings with others. The basic meaning of tesaki is "fingers," but its more common meanings include "pawn," and "agent," in the sense "spy," and "cat's paw," in the sense of a person being used as a tool--all of which, of course, are negative connotations.
日本語にも「猫の手を借りたい」というのがありますが、犬とは違って余り人間の言うことをきかない猫は手先には適していないと思いますが、 "cat's paw" の由来が分かるかもと期待して辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: a person who is used by another to carry out an unpleasant or dangerous task: he was merely a cat’s paw of older and cleverer men
・Wiktionary: (figuratively) A pawn or dupe; somebody who has been unwittingly tricked into acting in another's interest.: From a fable, perhaps of Aesop's, in which a crafty monkey uses flattery to convince a cat to pull hot chestnuts from a fire. The cat singes his paw, and the monkey gobbles up the chestnuts leaving none for the cat.
なるほどイソップが由来ですか。 日本人は "cat's paw" を使うとの指摘は良く分かります。大物と言われる政治家はもちろん "cat's paw" を上手く使いますが、ビジネスの世界でも日本では社長が製品のプレゼンをする事は余りなく "cat's paw" にやらせます。　欧米では、上にいる人ほど製品のプレゼンが上手いのには感心します。

peccadillo

Japan's Cultural Code Words, 「タレント」の項の英語タイトル "People with Talent" の一部を引用します。
At first, the use of the word tarento was confined to radio and television performers, but it was soon applied to novice entertainers in other fields as well. Shintaro Ishiahra, now known as one of Japan's most hawkish post-World War II politicians, was to broaden the scope of its usage. In the 1950s, whe he was still in his twenties, Ishihara began publishing steamy novels about the sexual and other peccadilloes of Japanese youth, and became rich and famous by the time he was 30.
"peccadilloes" はロンドンのPiccadilly Circusを連想させますが、関連があるのでしょうか？
・Collins Dictionary: a petty sin or trifling fault: The Ambassador didn't seem to view the matter very seriously, called it a peccadillo.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a small fault or a not very bad action: a youthful peccadillo: He dismissed what had happened as a mere peccadillo.
・Vocabulary.com: A peccadillo is a minor offense or sin. Parents recognize that their kids have a few peccadilloes: they don't always remember to say please and thank you, don't put their dirty clothes in the hamper, and worst of all, they keeping (sic.) finding the chocolate stash!
Peccadillo is based on the Spanish word peccado, meaning "sin," with a diminutive added, making peccadillo a small sin. How big a sin is a peccadillo? Well, that depends on who you ask. The person committing the offense is likely to try to pass off any number of transgressions and mistakes as peccadilloes. If you apologize and are forgiven, it's probably a peccadillo. If your transgression could get you fired, it's probably not!
なるほど、スペイン語由来の言葉ですね。しかし、ロンドンのPiccadillyとの関連が分からないので更に調べるとWikipediaにPiccadillyの説明がありました。以下はWikipediaからの抜粋です。
The name Piccadilly may have arisen from a tailor named Robert Baker, who owned a shop on the Strand, in the late 16th century and early 17th century. He amassed a large fortune by making and selling piccadills (also called picadils or pickadils?stiff collars with scalloped edges and a broad lace or perforated border), that were then in fashion. With his great fortune he purchased a large tract of what was then open country to the west of London, and in about 1612 he built a large house there. The mansion soon became known as Piccadilly Hall.
ところで、前都知事の石原氏が尖閣島を都が購入すると言った事は決して "peccadillo" ではなかったと思います。選挙で政治家を選ぶのは難しい事ですが、タレント候補には特に要注意です。

DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY

１０年程前になりますが、Don't Know Much About Geography という本を読んだことがあります。私のブログ English Collection の初めての投稿はその本で覚えた単語 "omphalos syndrome" （いわゆる中華思想）についてでした。　その本を思い出すコラム DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY がReader's Digest 4月号にありました。その中の一部を引用します。
"During the Middle Ages, everybody was middle aged. Church and state were co-operatic. Middle Evil society was made up of monks, lords, and surfs."
中世の人は皆中高年とは面白い発想ですね。 MedievalがMiddle Evilになったり、surfsがいたのも愉快です。これは　serfからの連想（駄洒落といった方があってる）でしょう。
最近本屋を覗くことが滅多にありませんが、またDON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUTシリーズの本を探して読みたくなりました。

As kids see it

Readers Digest June Issueに出ていたちょっと可愛い話です。この記事は実際には1962年の６月号に最初に掲載された話です。
My three-year-old Kenny is an independent little fellow, so when he started going to nursery school I was afraid he might be somewhat uncooperative. Sure enough, on the fourth day he came home with a letter addressed to me.
I opened it apprehensively, feeling certain that it was from his teacher. It was.
"Dear Mrs Paulding," it read. "Some of the other children had notes to take home, and Kenny wanted one too. He is a sweet, sweet boy. All is well."

pushover

Japan's Cultural Code Words, 「素直さ」の項の英語タイトル "The Meek Survive" で日本人の素直な性格について述べていますが、日本人女性についての個所から抜粋します。
Women, regardless of their class, were in an especially sensitive position where their relationships with men were concerned. For more than a thousand years of Japan's most recent history--from around 900 to 1945--women were conditioned to be passive and subservient to men. From the sexist male viewpoint, this cultural conditioning made Japanese women into paragons of feminine virtue,instilling in them traits that early Western male visitors found totally captivating.
...
And Japanese women are no longer the pushovers for men that they once were. By most criteria, Japanese women are smarter, more flexible, more durable, and often more talented, than Japanese men, and slowly but surely they are getting on top.
日本人女性はもう "pushovers" では無いと著者はいっていますが、 "pushover" とは何でしょうか？
・Macmillan Dictionary: someone who is easy to influence or persuade, or an opponent who is easy to defeat: Colonel Moore was a kind and sympathetic man, but no pushover.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
* an opponent who is easy to defeat or a victim who is capable of no effective resistance: They thought the first team they played would be a pushover.
* someone unable to resist an attraction or appeal: Dad's a pushover. He'll let me do anything I want.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: something that is easy to do or to win, or someone who is easily persuaded or influenced or defeated: The interview was an absolute pushover. Jean will look after Harry, I'm quite sure - she's a pushover for babies (= will do anything for them).
昔の日本人女性がどうだったかは知りませんが、現在の日本人女性が決して "pushovers" では無い ことは確かです。

straight face

Japan's Cultural Code Words, 「知らん顔」の項の英語タイトルは "Keeping a Straight Face" となっていました。その中の一部を抜粋します。
From day-to-day personal relations to business and political matters, it is still important and frequently vital for the Japanese to put on a shirankao to protect themselves from their custom of not clearly verbalizing their opinions, goals, or objections, and from the behind-the-scenes activities that characterize their relationships.
と言うような具合で、知らん顔をする事は日本人の特技、特性だと著者は指摘しています。確かに、知らん顔をする事は、誰にでも一度や二度は経験があると思いますが、それは日本人だけの特技ではないと思います。日本人による真珠湾攻撃があることは米国の首脳（多分大統領も）は知っていたのですが、 「知らん顔」をしましたし、ベトナム戦争や湾岸戦争での非人道的な行為も 「知らん顔」をした米国人は少なくないと思います。
説明文にはどこにも "straight face" は使われていませんが、 「知らん顔」を次ぎの様に説明しています。
One facet of this traditional Japanese behavior that continues to have an impact on outsiders, particularly on Westerners, is the facial expression known as shirankao (she-rahn-kow), which literally translated as "an I-don't-know face" or "a face that doesn't know." By extension, shirankao also refers to a face that shows nothing--a face that does not reveal and individual's feelings of intentions--in other words, a "poker face."
さて、 "straight face" にも「知らん顔」の意味があるか辞書で確認します。
・Collins Dictionary: a serious facial expression, esp one that conceals the impulse to laugh: I won't get married if you say not to,' I hope she joked through a straight face.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a face giving no evidence of emotion and especially of merriment: lied with a straight face
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a serious expression on your face that you use when you do not want someone to know that you think something is funny: Brian looked ridiculous in leather trousers, and I was desperately trying to keep a straight face.
・Vocabulary.com: a serious facial expression giving no evidence of interest or amusement: Most times the straight faces of the military men and women in front of me do not budge.”
"poker face" とほとんど同じですね。