White Fangの新しい生活地は暖かいサンタクララ、カリフォルニアの住宅街の様です。
Outside the household there was even more for White Fang to learn. The master's domain was wide and complex, yet it had its metes and bounds. The land itself ceased at the county road. Outside was the common domain of all gods -- the roads and streets. Then inside other fences were the particular domains of other gods. A myriad laws governed all these things and determined conduct; yet he did not know the speech of the gods, nor was there any way for him to learn save by experience.
godsはWhite Fangから見た人間の事を指しています。 "metes and bounds" は直ぐには思い出せませんでしたが、４年前(10/14/2011)に取り上げた表現です。 おさらいします。
・Wiktionary: (plural only)The limits of a piece of land as defined by reference to lines and/or points on the land.
・Oxford English Dictionary: (usually metes and bounds) chiefly historical: A boundary or boundary stone.
Reader's Digest 12月号にThis FBI File Has Been Read Over A Million Timesと題された記事がありました。これは有名なＵＦＯ目撃のことだと直ぐに推測しました。記事の冒頭は次の文です。
IT'S THE MOST POPULAR file in the FBI Vault - a high-tech electronic reading room that houses all kinds of bureau records released under the US Freedom of Information Act.
更に読み進むと、FBI長官のエドガー・フーバー宛メモが出て来ます。
They [the saucers] were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet [15m] in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only three feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture.
推測は当たっていました。今日取り上げる英単語は冒頭の文にあった "Vault" です。この単語に出会ったのは１５年位前でしょうか、コンピュータ関係の仕事をしていた時に米国製品（ストレージやデータベースなどのハードやソフト）のカタログやプリゼン資料にどのメーカーもやたらにこの単語を使っているのです。辞書を見ると最初に出てくる意味は「アーチ形天井」で、エーと思ったのですが、よく見ると「金庫室」や「貴重品保管室」、「地下貯蔵室」の意味もあったので、貴重なデータを保管する場所を意味していると理解したのです。
その後 "Vault" を辞書で引き直したことはありませんが、今回オンラインの英英辞書で "Vault" をデータの保管所のとしての説明あるいは文例はないか探しましたが、見つかりませんでした。ただWikipediaのOff-site data protectionの項に次の文が "Data vaults" の説明として出ていました。
The storage of off-site data is also known as vaulting, as backups are stored in purpose built vaults. There are no generally recognized standards for the type of structure which constitutes a vault.
Japan Times Online Feb.13の文化面の記事タイトルに知らない単語がありました。
Belle and Sebastian lean toward politics and away from twee on newest album "twee" がその単語ですが、とにかく記事を読みます。
Belle and Sebastian are headed back to Japan, but are not quite as you remember them. For nearly 20 years the Glasgow indie darlings have been pigeonholed as producers of twee, lovelorn songs for corduroy-clad outcasts, but with their newly released ninth album, that stereotype is in danger of looking outdated: “Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance” is as concerned with the dance floor as it is the state of the world in which it was conceived.
この文章によると "lovelorn songs for corduroy-clad outcasts" の様ですが、辞書ではどの様な説明がしてあるでしょうか？
・Oxford English Dictionary: Excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental: although the film’s a bit twee, it’s watchable
Origin: early 20th century: representing a child's pronunciation of sweet.
子供の "sweet" の発音から来た言葉、これなら覚えやすい。Vocabulary.comにもっと丁寧な次の説明がありました。
Something is twee if it's a little too cute or overly adorable. A children's book that is sweet and sentimental, illustrated with squirrels in little dresses, could be described as twee.
You could call a flowery hat twee, or describe an elaborate tea party, complete with lacy napkins, fancy silverware, and dressed-up guests, as twee. The word is traditionally British, and its original meaning could have described a dollhouse: "tiny, dainty, or miniature." Much as tummy comes from stomach, twee stems from the (overly adorable) way a child might pronounce the word sweet.
最近海外にも知られている「かわいー！」を連想します。ところで、"pigeonholed" は既に２度(3/27/2010、6/6/2014)も取り上げたので、さすがに覚えました。
Feb. 7 Japan Times Online の記事 'Piketty’s solution for Japan’s sick economy? A fourth arrow' のサブタイトルに見慣れない表現がありました。
Over the past week, the French economist has received rock-star treatment in Japan, where the translation of his 2013 book on inequality has hit bookshelves. The problem, Piketty argues, is that the Bank of Japan’s ultra-loose policies are ginning up stocks and real estate, assets that tend to further enrich the wealthy.
"ginning up" が気になる表現です。記事の冒頭を読むとトヨタの記録的な利益の話です。
Toyota’s projected record $18 billion windfall profit should put a smile on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s face.
"ginning up" の原型 "gin up" を辞書で調べます。
・Wiktionary: (transitive, US) generate, devise or create. The Phillies organization has been working hard to gin up a tide of nostalgia for the last season
Etymology: From gin (short for engine or generate) + up.
なるほど、語源を知ると何故この表現を使ったのか分かりました。トヨタの話から始まったからですね。 Piketty氏の主張は次の具体的な根拠を示しているので説得力があります。
By relying almost entirely on “creative” monetary policies and delaying any structural reforms, Abenomics risks increasing Japan’s Gini coefficient -- a measure of a nation’s rich-poor gap.
...
At 0.336, Japan’s Gini ranking is already worse than that of Germany, France, Italy and Canada.
...
Japan’s relative poverty rate -- those living on less than half of median income -- is already about 16 percent, the sixth-worst among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Gini coefficient/Gini rankingもついでに覚えて置きたい用語です。
先日郵便受けに「電力メータをスマートメータに切り替えました。」と書かれた電力会社からの通知が入っていました。スマートメータの導入により、電力使用量の検針員は不要になり、"Smart Grid" (grid 8/11/2008) の構築にも役立つのでしょう。Reader's DigestのDec. 2014号に 'The Internet of Things' と題された記事があり、冒頭に次の事が書かれていました。
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the name given to wireless connections between all sorts of devices, from household heaters to library books and pet trackers, each of which can be monitored and in many cases controlled by you remotely, from your smartphone.
そうすると、スマートメータも "IoT" ですね。略語の "IoT" は掲載していない辞書も多いのですが、Wikipediaの説明を一部引用します。
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the interconnection of uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices within the existing Internet infrastructure. Typically, IoT is expected to offer advanced connectivity of devices, systems, and services that goes beyond machine-to-machine communications (M2M) and covers a variety of protocols, domains, and applications.
'The Internet of Things' と言う表現を最初に使ったKevin AshtonがRFID JOURNALに書いた興味深い記事の一部を引用します。
That 'Internet of Things' Thing
In the real world, things matter more than ideas. And that's a big deal. We're physical, and so is our environment. Our economy, society and survival aren't based on ideas or information--they're based on things. You can't eat bits, burn them to stay warm or put them in your gas tank. Ideas and information are important, but things matter much more. Yet today's information technology is so dependent on data originated by people that our computers know more about ideas than things.
技術革新により世の中がどんどん変わりますね。しかし、犯罪や戦争など昔から変わらずに多発して、進化がない世の中でもあります。
But some clients want something less pleasant. ScentAir supplies the waft of meth labs and raw sewage for US Homeland Defense Training; the smell of dinosaur poo for a children's museum; and the smell of turpentine for an Andy Warhol retrospective art exhibition.
"meth labs" の "meth" が分かりません。辞書を引きます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (also crystal meth) The drug methamphetamine.: And when a drug like crystal meth is sprinkled on the wound, it really does seem like a miracle cure because it erases any concept of morality.
・Vocabulary.com: an amphetamine derivative (trade name Methedrine) used in the form of a crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous system and as an appetite suppressant
"meth" は私には区別ができない麻薬、覚醒剤、危険ドラッグ（元は合法ドラッグでしたね）の一種でした。
White Fangを引き取ったWeedon Scottはどこかに引っ越す様子です。
Weedon Scott debated with himself for a while, and then said more gently: “You are right, Matt.
I don’t know my own mind, and that’s what’s the trouble.”"Why, it would be rank ridiculousness for me to take that dog along," he broke out after another pause.
"I’m agreein' with you," was Matt’s answer, and again his employer was not quite satisfied with him.
上の引用文に出てきた "rank" は過去（7/9/2010、6/22/2010）に取り上げているので、復習です。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:
1) having a strong, unpleasant smell
2) very bad and obvious
3) complete or total
・Oxford English Dictionary: informal Very unpleasant: the tea at work is nice but the coffee's pretty rank
ジャック・ロンドンのWhite Fangに以前（11/1/2008）取り上げた単語がまた出て来ました。
It was by sheer blundering that he chanced upon the shrewdly hidden ptarmigen nest. He fell into it. He had essayed to walk along the trunk of a fallen pine. The rotten bark gave way under his feet, and with a despairing yelp he pitched down the rounded descent, smashed through the leafage and stalks of a small bush, and in the heart of the bush, on the ground, fetched up in the midst of seven ptarmigan chicks.
"essayed" がその単語ですが、今日はVocabulary.comの解説を引用します。
As a noun, an essay is also an attempt, especially a tentative initial one. Your essay to make friends at your new school would probably work better if you actually spoke to other students. As a verb, to essay is to make an attempt. If you essay to run for student council, you might lose to the girl who promises more recess, longer lunches, and less homework.
Reader's Digest 11月号に掲載のマレーシア観光の宣伝記事から引用します。
One of the most popular of these new additions is the Malaysia Year End Sale, which runs from November through to early January. All around the nation there's bargains galore to be had - it's a shopaholic's delight.
"bargains galore" の "galore" は知らない単語です。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: [postpositive] In abundance: there were prizes galore for everything
・Vocabulary.com: At a party with more cupcakes than anyone could imagine, you’ll hear guests say, “There are cupcakes galore!” Galore means there’s so much that it’s unbelievable.
The Irish phrase go lear literally translates as “to sufficiency.” If there are sufficient enough bananas to build a house with them, you’d say that there are bananas galore. The word is an example of a postpositive adjective, which means it comes after the word it describes. So when you go to a circus and 700 clowns surround you, don’t say “There are galore clowns,” because the correct way to express your terror is this: “There are clowns galore. Help!”
形容する言葉の後に付く形容詞ですか。
Feb.3 Japan Times Onlineのエンターテイメント欄の記事 'Negicco’s new album turns the onion idols into Shibuya-kei’s new hope' に出てきた単語は何であるかは知っていますが、日本語でも何と言うのか知らなかった物なのでこの際覚えておきます。
The crowd at the sold-out Liquidroom show furiously pumps glowsticks shaped like green onions in time with the beat coming out of the venue’s sound system. They scream when three young women appear, and the energy only grows as the first song of the night gets rolling. It gets especially loud when they reach the part where they spell out their group’s name: “N! E! G! I! CC! O!”
その単語は "glowstick" です。
・Collins Dictionary: a plastic tube containing a luminescent material, waved or held aloft esp at gigs, raves, etc
・Wordnik: Alternative spelling of glow stick.: The screening process uses a blue-light, "glowstick" technology to detect oral cancer at its earliest stage.
・Oxford English Dictionary: A novelty item consisting of a plastic tube containing two chemicals that combine when the tube is bent, so producing a luminescent glow.: For whatever reason, skating is much more fun with a glowstick, apparently.
日本語名も調べます。
・weblio: 光る棒, グロースティック
・Glosbe: サイリューム （これは商標名で英英辞典でも記載しているものもありました。）
掲載語数の多い英辞郎にはこの単語(glowstick/glow stick) は含まれていませんでした。
「光る棒」はダサい感じで、実際には何と呼ばれているのかまだ気になります。どこで売っているのかも知りませんが、百円ショップにあるのかしら？
P.S. 後日百円ショップの玩具コーナーに「光る棒」が並べられているのを見ました。
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