Break a leg!

Anne of Green Gablesを翻訳した「赤毛のアン」の翻訳者として有名な村岡花子をモデルにしたNHKの朝ドラ「花子とアン」を毎朝見ています。
主人公の安東はな（ドラマでの仮名）達が女学校で「ロミオとジュリエット」の演劇をすることになった時に米国人（多分）の校長が女学生達に "Break a leg" と励ましの言葉をかけていました。
この慣用句はかなり前に何かの本（小説ではないと思う）に載っていて、ユニークな表現なので記憶に残ったのですが、それ以来初めて耳にしました。（書き物でも実際には見た事はありませんでした。）
"Break a leg" は下記の辞書の説明のように演技をする人に対する励ましの言葉なので、朝ドラ「花子とアン」ではそのぴったりの場面でした。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Fig. Good luck! (A special theatrical way of wishing a performer good luck. Saying "good luck" is considered by actors to be a jinx.) "Break a leg!" shouted the stage manager to the heroine. Let's all go and do our best. Break a leg!
「花子とアン」の主人公がAnne of Green Gablesの翻訳を始める時期が来るのを楽しみにしています。

break the bank

今日もReader's Digest 4月号の旅行のヒント記事からの引用です。
YOU DON'T HAVE to break the bank on food while travelling. Many restaurants - particularly in holiday resorts - offer "early bird specials" in the early evening. Eat early and you'll have some extra money for ice-cream or coffee later. Or grab some fresh vegies and fruit, local cheese, and homemade bread and have lunch or dinner al fresco.
ここでの "break the bank" は文脈から、否定形で食事に大金を使う必要はないとの意味だと容易に推測ができますが、一応辞書で確認します。
・Collins English Dictionary: to ruin financially or deplete the resources of a bank (as in gambling): 'Many parents, under pressure from their offspring, are willing to break the bank in order to keep their children in fashionable clothes.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to cost too much: It only costs ￡2. That's not going to break the bank.
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: to cost too much Having a winter vacation in the sun without breaking the bank is a dream come true.
"break the bank" なんとも大げさな感じのする表現ですね。
ところで引用文の最後に出てきたイタリア語の表現 "al fresco" もついでに覚えておきたい。
・Oxford Dictionary: In the open air: 'an al fresco luncheon’

better digs

Reader's Digest 4月号のTRAVEL関係の記事からの引用です。
NOT ALL HOTEL rooms are created equal - some are larger or have superior views. Upon check-in, request better digs. If you have some cash to spare, ask if an affordable upgrade is available.
動詞の "dig" は誰でも知っていますが、この "better digs" とは何でしょうか？　この状況では部屋の事を意味しているようですが、辞書で確認します。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: informal for lodgings: Many students in London have to live in digs.
・Wiktionary: (plural only, colloquial) Lodgings. From diggings.
この意味では複数形の "digs" だけが使われるのも覚えておこう。

parry

"Fahrenheit 451" を読んでいます。話の大きな流れは分かっても、場面場面に出てくる描写の意味がさっぱり分からない個所が相変わらず次々とでてきますが、とにかく読み飛ばしています。とは言っても知らない単語の意味は調べます。
"Stop blushing. I'm not needling, really I'm not. Do you know, I had a dream an hour ago. I lay down for a catnap and in this dream you and I, Montag, got into a furious debate on books. You towered with rage, yelled quotes at me. I calmly parried every thrust. "Power,' I said. And you, quoting Dr. Johson, said 'Knowledge is more than equivalent to force!' And I said, 'Well, Dr. Johnson also said, dear boy, that "He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.'" Stick with the firemen, Montag. All else is dreary chaos!"
動詞の "parry" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Answer (a question or accusation) evasively: ‘he parried questions from reporters outside the building’
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to avoid giving a direct answer to (a question) by being skillful or clever: She cleverly parried the reporters' questions.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to manage cleverly to avoid dealing with a difficult question or some criticism: Predictably the president parried enquiries about the arms scandal.
この能力が優れていれば世の中を渡るのに困らないでしょうね。
"Fahrenheit 451" を一応読み終えましたが、今まで読んだ本で最も難しい小説でした。

gibbering

"Fahrenheit 451" を読んでいますが、国民が本を所有してはいけないという未来のユニーク過ぎる設定であることと、描写が非常に比喩的なのでとても難しく感じる内容です。とりあえず表面的な意味だけでも理解することにします。
Well, wasn't there a wall between him and Mildred, when you came down to it? Literally not just one wall but, so far, three! And expensive, too! And the uncles, the aunts, the cousins, the nieces, the nephews, that lived in those walls, the gibbering pack of tree-apes that said nothing, nothing, nothing and said it loud, loud.
何も言わないのに大声とはチンプンカンプンです。そこは無視して、何か見覚えのある "gibbering" の意味を調べます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: unable to speak in a sensible way, especially because you are frightened or shocked: After a day with the kids I'm a gibbering wreck.
次ぎの二つの辞書を含め、普通は "gibber" の項目で動詞としての説明を載せています。
・Collins Dictionary: 1.to utter rapidly and unintelligibly; prattle 2.(intransitive) (of monkeys and related animals) to make characteristic chattering sounds: Their first response was to hide completely, leaving Sir Norman Fowler and poor Tim Smith to squeak and gibber on the television.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to speak quickly in a way that cannot be understood, usually when you are very frightened or confused: Stop gibbering, man, and tell us what you saw.
フムフム、以前 "gibberish" を採り上げたのを思い出しました。ジュニア小説に出てきた単語なので "gibber" は英米人なら子供でも知っている単語なのでしょう。

Spectator sport

My nine-year-old and I passed a store with a sign that read "Watch Batteries Installed - Five Bucks."
He seemed confused: "Who would pay to watch batteries installed?"

someone here

"Fahrenheit 451" の主人公 Montagは、本を違法に所蔵していた婦人の家と蔵書を燃やす仕事で、その婦人が家から逃げることを拒否し焼け死んだ事件の後、勤務を休みましたが、そこへ上司のBeattyが訪ねてきます。
"There's a Phoenix car just drove up and a man in a black shirt with an orange snake stitched on his arm coming up the front walk."
"Captain Beatty?" he said.
"Captain Beatty."
Montag did not move, but stood looking into the cold whiteness of the wall immediately before him.
"Go let him in, will you? Tell him I'm sick."
"Tell him yourself!" She ran a few steps this way, a few steps that, and stopped, eyes wide, when the front door speaker called her name, softly, softly, Mrs. Montag, Mrs. Montag, someone here, someone here, Mrs. Montag, Mrs. Montag, someone's here. Fading.
こんなところで "someone here" とsomeone" が使われる例を知り、大昔、確か高校生の頃に読んだ『英語に強くなる本』岩田一男著に書かれていた、トイレで用を足している時にノックされたら "someone in" と言うと書かれていたのを思い出しました。

let you in on it

Montagの上司BeatyはMontagが密かに本を隠しているのに気付いているようです。
Beaty puffed his pipe. "Every fireman, sooner or later, hits this. They only need understanding, to know how the wheels run. Need to know the history of our profession. They don't feed it to rookies like they used to. Damn shame." Puff. "Only fire chiefs remember it now." Puff. "I'll let you in on it."
最後に出てきた表現 "let you in on" は慣用句の様です。辞書で調べます。
"let someone in on something" は慣用句として次ぎの説明を見つけました。
・Macmillan Dictionary: let someone in on something to tell someone a secret: If you promise not to tell, I'll let you in on a secret.: They were planning something, but they wouldn't let me in on it.
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: to tell someone a secret Bill, could you let me in on your techniques for getting along with girls? The plan was so well guarded they only let three people in on it.
こう言う簡単な口語表現も知らないとチンプンカンプンですね。

French window

"Fahrenheit 451" を読んでいます。 今年の１月に読んだ小説 "WILDERNESS" に出てきた "Venetian blind" を思い出させる表現 "French windows" が次ぎの様に出てきました。
The room was cold but nonetheless he felt he could not breathe. He did not wish to open the drapes and open the French windows, for he did not want the moon to come into the room. So, with the feeling of a man who will die in the next hour for lack of air, he felt his way toward his open, separte, and therefore cold bed.
早速  "French window" を調べます。
・Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary: a pair of casement windows that reaches to the floor, opens in the middle, and is placed in an exterior wall
・Wikipedia: French doors are derived from an original French design called the casement door. It is a door with lites where all or some panels would be in a casement door. A French door traditionally has a moulded panel at the bottom of the door. Called a French window when used in pairs as double-leaved doors with large glass panels in each door leaf, and in which the doors may swing out (most typical) as well as in.

salamander

Ray Bradbury著の "Fahrenheit 451" を読みます。この小説も著者も有名なようですが、例によって私は全く知らない作家です。 "Fahrenheit 451" は三つの章に分かれていて、最初の章のタイトルはThe Hearth and the Salamanderとなっています。読み始めるとかなり変わった話で、想像力の乏しい私にはかなり難しい小説です。主人公のMontagは消防士ですが、石油のでるホースで家を燃やしている場面を描写しています。消防士よる放火の事かと想像しているとそうでもないようで、どうやらこの小説の消防士は何故か燃やすことが本職のようです。場面や状況の描写にやたらに比喩が多く含まれているようで、私にとっては厄介な小説です。描写はすっきり、ストーリーの展開は早い小説の方が好きなのですが、この本はかなり我慢して読まないといけないようです。
さてこの章のタイトルの "Salamander" は直ぐに通訳ガイドの受験勉強で覚えた大山椒魚(great salamander)　を思い起こしますが、この "Salamander" が山椒魚を示しているはずはありません。西洋のお伽噺に出てくる火を吐く恐竜の事かしらと推測しますが、辞書で確認します。
・Collins Dictionary:
　1.any of various urodele amphibians, such as Salamandra salamandra (European fire salamander) of central and S Europe (family Salamandridae). They are typically terrestrial, have an elongated body, and only return to water to breed
　3.a mythical reptile supposed to live in fire
・Wiktionary:
1.A long, slender, chiefly terrestrial amphibian of the order Caudata, resembling a lizard or a newt.
2.(mythology) A creature much like a lizard that is resistant to and lives in fire, hence the elemental being of fire.
"salamander" で火を噴く "dragon" や "dinosaure" は連想しないようですが、火の中に住める神話の "amphibian" として認識されるようです。
実際に "fire salamander" と名付けられた  "salamander" 類がヨーロッパや北米に生息していますが、もちろん火の中には住めません。
・Wikipedia: The fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) is probably the best-known salamander species in Europe. It is black with yellow spots or stripes to a varying degree; some specimens can be nearly completely black while on others the yellow is dominant