The Running Manに出てきた "sunfishing" は調べるのに苦労しました。
Richards drove slowly, sitting up straight now, and they looked at him with vacant, bovine awe. In much the same way, Richards thought, that cows must look at a farmer who had gone mad and lies kicking and sunfishing and screaming on the barn floor.
マンボウも "sunfish" と呼ばれるのを知っていますが、 "sunfishing" はどの辞書にも意味が掲載されていません。私は普通ONELOOK DICTIONARYを使っていますが、これは辞書ではなく、辞書検索ツールで 、検索対象の単語を掲載している辞書へのリンクを一覧で表示してくれる便利なツールで、ほとんどの単語の場合で十以上の辞書がリストされますが、 "sunfishing" は掲載している辞書が全くありません。
結局Google検索で特殊なカウボーイ用語であることが分かりました。
・Cowboy Term Dictionary: Sunfishing: When a bucking horse twists his body in the shape of a crescent
・Cowboy Bob's Dictionary: When a horse rears and twists its body violently from side to side, rolling its belly upward toward the sun, it is said to be sunfishing.
The Running Manを読んでいます。今日取り上げるのは難しそうな単語です。
The gun was knocked into the brush and Richards was on his back. The dog was on top of him, a big German shepherd with a generous streak of mongrel, lapping his face and droodling on his shirt. His tail flagged back and forth in vigorous semaphores of joy.
"semaphores of joy" は犬が喜んで尻尾を振っていることを示しているはずなので、表現の意味かしらと思いますが、とにかく辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A system of sending messages by holding the arms or two flags or poles in certain positions according to an alphabetic code.; Use of semaphore flags was limited to within range of telescopes in earlier days and binoculars today.
・Collins Dictionary: a system of signalling by holding a flag in each hand and moving the arms to designated positions to denote each letter of the alphabet: Amy finished her whisky with a shiver, and held up her glass to semaphore a request to fill it again.
なるほど、元は手旗信号のことですか。
Stephen KingのThe Running Manを読んでいます。
He tossed the Ogden Grassner glasses in the glove box and drove out, waving noncommittally at the gate. The boy barely looked up from the skin magazine he was reading.
"skin magazine" は初めて見る単語ですが、エロ雑誌ではないかと推測できます。辞書で確認します。
・Collins Dictionary: a magazine containing pornographic images
・Urban Dictionary: A Copy of pornographic literature; Porn, Pornography, Adult literature; Porn and Porno are informal examples.: I just found some Skin Magazines under Tommy's bed.
当たりでした。
Richardsはボストンから脱出するために車のトランクに隠れて検問を逃れ、トランクから出て来ました。
"How do you feel?" Bradley asked presently.
"It's getting better. Take my wallet out for me. I can't make my arm work just right yet."
Bradley shooed the words away with one hand. "Later. I want to tell you how Rich and I set it up."
Richards lit another cigarette from the stub of the first. A dozen charley horses were loosening slowly.
引用文の最後に出てきた "charley horses" は何か唐突でさっぱり分かりません。早速辞書を見ます。 ・Oxford English Dictionary: A cramp or feeling of stiffness in an arm or leg.
・Dictionary.com: a painful, involuntary cramp of an arm or leg muscle resulting from excessive muscular strain or a blow.: She may be muscle-bound and throw a splint sometimes, or get the charley horse ; but megrims are not for her―believe me!
・Wiktionary: A muscle cramp, usually in the thigh or leg.
そんな意味ですか。でも何故と思わずにはいられません。引用した最後の辞書に次の語源が書かれていました。
Etymology: The term may date back to American slang of the 1880s, possibly from the pitcher Charlie "Old Hoss" Radbourn who is said to have suffered from cramps
The Running Man by Stephen Kingに以前（7/30/2013）取り上げて覚えた "sans" が次の様に出て来ました。
"You and the guards go on when your name is called. Bobby will, uh, interview you. Feel free to express yourself as colorfully as you please. It's all good theater. Then, around six-ten, just before the first Network promo, you'll be given your stake money and exit--sans guards--at stage left. Do you understand?"
The Running Manに以前取り上げた "iridescent" と "sport" が出て来ました。今日は復習です。
Thompson, of course. Host and emcee of The Running Man. He wore a natty green tunic, slightly iridescent, and sported a mane of hair that was silvery-attractive enough to be suspect.
"iridescent": Showing luminous colors that seem to change when seen from different angles.(Oxford English Dictionary)
"sport": Wear or display (a distinctive or noticeable item): he was sporting a huge handlebar mustache (Oxford English Dictionary)
先日 "on the heels of" を取り上げたばかりですが、又知らない "heel" がThe Running Manに出て来ました。
A switchblade clicked out and glittered in Bradley's hand.
"If you're heeled, drop it down."
"I'm not."
こんどは動詞の "heel" ですね。早速辞書を見ます。
・Dictionary.com: Armed; carrying a weapon : I can talk better when I know this guy isn't heeled (1866+)
・Webster's New World College Dictionary: armed, esp. with a gun
物騒な単語ですが、The Running Manなら出てきて当然の単語でした。
The Running Manの逃亡者RichardsはボストンのYMCAの建物の地下で、追ってから逃れようと、何やらしでかそうとしています。
He walked over to the newspapers which lay in dirty yellow drifts against the whole eastern length of the cellar. Then he ferreted out the folded and dog-eared book of matches he had been lighting his smokes with. There were three left. He yanked out a sheet paper and formed it into a spill; held it under his arm like a dunce cap and lit a match.
...
He held it to his paper spill and yellow flame bloomed.
"spill" は液体をこぼしたり、秘密を漏らしたりする事しか連想しませんが、上に出てくる "spill" は明らかにその様な意味ではなく、紙を "spill" にして、火をつけた後はその "paper spill" を手で持っていたとありますが、いずれにせよ単なる紙としか考えられません。辞書を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: a splinter of wood or strip of twisted paper with which pipes, fires, etc, are lit
・Dictionary.com: a slender piece of wood or of twisted paper, for lighting candles, lamps, etc.
火をつけるために紙を捩じったか、丸めた物ですが、日本語では特に対応する単語はないですね。英語は語彙が多いと感じざるを得ません。
The Running ManとなったRichardsはいよいよ逃亡を始めました。追跡者達に見つかるのではないかと常にびくびくしています。
If I'd had a gun, I would have burned him where he stood, Richards thought. Christ. Oh, Christ. And on the heels of that: Next time it won't be a purse snatcher. It'll be you.
英語では何故か "heel" が使われている慣用句が多いのですが、上の "on the heels of" はどんな意味でしょうか？
・Oxford English Dictionary: Following closely after: September frosts would be on the heels of the dog days of August.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Fig. soon after something. There was a rainstorm on the heels of the windstorm. The team held a victory celebration on the heels of their winning season.
踵は前からではなく、直ぐ後ろにいると目につくので、例えば特にエスカレータで前の人の踵が目についた時にこの "on the heels of" を思い出せば覚えられそう。
ついでに今までにとりあげた "heel" の慣用句を復習します。
"heel in" (12/10/2014): to insert (cuttings, shoots, etc) into the soil before planting to keep them moist
"dig in your heels" (6/30/2014): Resist stubbornly; refuse to give in
"head over heels" (): a) At top speed; frantically b) completely; utterly (esp in the phrase head over heels in love)
"heel" 自体も踵以外に次の意味でも使われます。
"heel" (10/16/2014): a person who treats other people badly and unfairly
"heels of your hands" (2009/8/18): the part of the palm of the hand next to the wrist
Stephen KingのThe Running Manを読んでいます。２０２５年の米国、国家公認の人殺しＴＶゲームがあると言う滅茶苦茶な設定で、主人公のRichardsは３０日間逃げ切れば莫大な賞金を受け取れるThe Running Manの選考テストに受かり、ゲーム開始前の穏やかな時を過ごしています。
By the time the discreet knock came, he was three hundred pages in, and pretty well in the bag to boot. One of the bourbon bottles was empty.
部屋のドアが静かにノックされた時にThe Running Manは本を三百ページ読み終え、バーボンは１本空けていました。分からないのは "in the bag to boot" の個所です。辞書で意味を調べます。
"in the bag to boot" 二つの慣用句で構成されていました。
まず "in the bag" はスラングで次の意味でした。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Drunk: I don’t think my parents even suspected that I was half in the bag.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Fig. Inf. intoxicated. (*Typically: be ~.) Kelly looks like he is in the bag. John is in the bag and mean as hell.
そして、"to boot" は、
・Collins Dictionary: as well; in addition ⇒ it's cold and musty, and damp to boot
・Cambridge English Dictionary: in addition: He's kind, handsome, and wealthy to boot. "in the bag to boot" の意味は分からず読み飛ばしても問題はありませんでしたが、"to boot" は覚えたい。
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