A Stranger is Watchingを読んでいます。
'The father's the editor of Evente Magazine, you know that new one, just a couple of years old. Guess he sank a lot of dough into it. Second mortgage, you name it. But it's coming along pretty well now.
この手の小説では "dough" がお金を意味するスラングとして会話でよく使われるので既に覚えていますが、ブログには取り上げていなかったようなので今日取り上げておきます。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: old-fashioned slang: I don't want to work but I need the dough.
・Vocabulary.com: Many baked goods begin their lives as dough, including bread, rolls, and some cookies. Dough is stiff enough that you can shape it, pull pieces off of it, stretch it and knead it. Informally, dough can also mean "money." If your friend says, "I make so much dough waiting tables!" he probably means money, not cookie dough. The word comes from an Indo-European root that means "smear" or "knead."
A Stranger is Watchingにどこかで見覚えのある表現が出て来ました。
Probably the weather had kept people home, but that was just as well. He'd get more chance to talk to the bartender. Let's hope he was the kind who liked to chew the rag.
この "chew the rag" 自体は取り上げてはいませんが、"11/1/2010" に調べた "chew the fat" と同じ意味でしたね。
サスペンス小説A Stranger is Watchingを読んでいます。死刑判決により処刑寸前となった死刑囚の弁護士が、殺された妻の夫であり死刑制度の擁護者でもあるPetersonのところに処刑を中止させようと最後の説得をしに来ました。
'If he were a killer would he have left an eyewitness like Neil? Would he have left Mrs Perry alive knowing she probably recognized him? She shops in Timberly's. A killer doesn't leave witnesses, Mr Peterson.'
Hugh shook his head. 'It doesn't wash. It's all conjecture. There isn't a scrap of proof in this.'
HughはPetersonと一緒にいた刑事ですが、そのHughが言った "It doesn't wash" の "wash" は何でしょうか？ 早速辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Seem convincing or genuine:‘charm won’t wash with this crew’
・Vocabulary.com: admit to testing or proof: This silly excuse won't wash in traffic court.
・Dictionary.com: to be found true, valid, or real when tested or closely scrutinized; stand being put to the proof: His honesty won't wash.
どうも普通は否定形で使われ、信用できない、当てにならないという様な意味に なるようだ。
英国旅行から帰って来ました。ラグビーファンとしては旅行中に見た（ホテルのＴＶで）日本と南アフリカとの試合、日本の歴史的勝利、特にロスタイムでの29-32からの逆転には感激しました。
旅行中にリーダース・ダイジェスト、日本人なら必ず誤訳する英文、そしてMomoを読みましたが、しばらくは旅行前に読んだA Stranger is Watchingのメモが溜まっているのでそこからの話題です。
'I see.' Hank shoved his glass across the bar. 'Have one yourself.'
'Don't mind if I do. Don't usually if it's busy, but you could swing a cat around here. Lousy kind of night anyway. Kind of gives you the creeps. Guess everybody feels that way. That Thompson kid, you know. His mother lives two blocks from me.'
"swing a cat" の表現は猫の額ほどの区画の区民農園を借りていた頃に取り上げた表現 "no room to swing a cat" を思い出させます。
多くの辞書に "no room to swing a cat" を説明する項がありますが、"swing a cat" の項があったのは次の辞書しか見つかりませんでした。
・Colloquial Speech of Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada:
1. Denotes an area containing a large number of any one thing, often members of a particular family; "You can't swing a cat in Zealand without hittin' a Brewer."
2. Used to describe a lack of space; "We had barely enough room in the tent to swing a cat." 3. Used to describe an area of abundant space "We had more than enough room in the tent to swing a cat." Often, "dead cat" is used when extra emphasis is required.
肯定文で "swing a cat" を使用すると、上記辞書の1.又は2.になるのですね。
'Hellow. Yeah, this is Jim ... James Vogler. Tonight. That's right. Oh, that's good! Where? When can I get it? You're kidding. You're kidding. If that don't beat! All right ... West Thirty-Sixth Street near the dock.
いかにも口語的な "If that don't beat!" は基本的な単語で構成されていますが、意味がちっとも分かりません。また "beat" を含む口語表現は "beat it" など色々あるので "beat" は苦手な単語でもあります。辞書で調べるのも口語表現は苦労もします。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: If that don't beat all! and That beats everything!; Don't that (just) beat all!
Rur. That surpasses everything!; That is amazing!; That takes the cake! (The grammar error, that don't is built into this catchphrase.) Tom: The mayor is kicking the baseball team out of the city. Bill: If that don't beat all! John: Now, here's a funny thing. South America used to be attached to Africa. Fred: That beats everything! John: Yeah.
"If that don't beat!" の後に "all" が付いていますが、どうもこのフレーズと同じの様です。 "all" の代わりに "a pig a-pecking" と言うのもありました。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: If that don't beat a pig a-pecking! Rur. That's amazing! Tom: A Republican won the Senate seat! Jane: If that don't beat a pig a-pecking! Mary: Jim lost twenty pounds in one month. Charlie: If that don't beat a pig a-pecking!
私には口が回らないので絶対言えない表現ですね。
さて、明日から旅行に行くのでブログはしばらくお休みします。行先は久し振りの英国です。英国に行くのは三度目ですが、今までロンドンしか行ったことがなく、今回は湖水地方など英国の田園風景を訪ねるでとても楽しみです。
A Stranger is Watchingを読んでいます。
He stood up and streched. His shoulders and neck were tense and stiff. Pushing fifty and feel like I'm eighty, he thought. It had been a rotten day. Another attempted bank robbery... this time the Chase Bank at Forty-Eighth and Madison.
"Pushing fifty and feel like I'm eighty" 個所ですが、"Pushing" な５０歳だが、８０歳の様に感じる意味だと思いますが、この "Pushing" は押しが強い、つまり元気の意味でしょうか？ 辞書を引きます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: marked by ambition, energy, enterprise, and initiative: among the young associates at the law firm, he was unmistakably the most pushing
・WordNet: marked by aggressive ambition and energy and initiative: A pushing youth intent on getting on in the world.
やはり、元気に溢れ、精力的な意味がありますね。しかし、それなら８０歳の様に感じるはずはありません。しつこく辞書を見るとありました、こんな意味が。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: be pushing 50, 60, etc.: He looks great and yet he must be pushing 60 by now.
・Dictionary.com: Used to denote that someone is nearly a particular (advanced) age : She is pushing 50 (1974+)
なるほど、これなら小説の引用個所は、まだ５０歳なのにと言う感じですね。
A car belonging to a pregnant patient was broken into. The only thing that was stolen was a wine bottle in a brown paper bag. It turns out, that's where she was keeping her urine sample, which she'd brought in to be tested.
A Stranger is Watchingを読んでいます。NYのGrande Central Stationは話の重要な舞台で、地下には刑務所を思い起こさせる様な場所もあるようです。（現在はどうかな？）
The unmarked door at the head of a narrow staircase in Sing-Sing intrigued her. Cautiously she'd mentioned it to one of the securrity guards who became a good friend. Rusty said that was only the miserable hole where they used to wash dishes for the Oyster Bar and she had no business in that area. But she'd worn him down until he took her to see the room.
"Sing-Sing" はNYの有名な刑務所に例えているのでしょう。ところで、今日は単語ではなく慣用句 "worn him down" を取り上げます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Overcome or exhaust someone or something by persistence.: It already had been a long day, and the stress had worn me down.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to make someone feel tired and less able to deal successfully with a situation: All the stress and extra travel is beginning to wear him down.
securrity guardのRustyをしつこく口説いてその地下の部屋を見させて貰ったのですね。
A Stranger is Watchingを読んでいます。陸の話なのに船が出て来ました。
The car was in the parking lot behind the theatre. Thank God, they'd decided to spend the money and have it fixed. It was eight years old but the body still looked all right and, as Jim said, better to spend the four hundres dollars to get it shipshape than use the same money to buy another man's trouble.
"shipshape" を辞書で引きます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: In good order; trim and neat: he checked that everything was shipshape
・Cambridge English Dictionary: neat and with everything in its correct place: The builders have gone, but it'll take a while to get things shipshape again.
意味は分かりましたが、語源も気になります。次の説明はWiktionaryからです。
of nautical origin, based on the obligation of a sailor to keep his/her quarters arranged neatly and securely against the inevitable turbulence at sea. It also implies a neat and efficient packing to fit into the limited space typically allotted to service members aboard ship.
'How are you, Mr Lufts?' He was a short, thick-necked man in his mid-sixties with watery blue eyes. Tiny broken capillaries formed tell-tale patches on his cheeks and nostrils reminding Sharon that Steve was worried about Bill Lufts's heavy drinking.
"tell-tale" は "telltale" で密告者とか密告するとの意味で何かの話に出て来ましたが、上の個所ではその意味では合わないので、辞書を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: telltale signs of something are obvious signs that it exists or it has happened: the telltale signs of lead poisoning
この意味ですね。いつもの様に別の辞書も見ます。
・Vocabulary.com: Something that's telltale accidentally relays important information. A wise parent can tell who ate the last of the birthday cake by the telltale chocolate smudges on the culprit's face.
The telltale dark circles under your teacher's eyes betray how little sleep he got last night, and a telltale bulge in a shopper's pocket is sometimes enough for a store owner to suspect she's a shoplifter. If it's telltale, its very presences reveals something. A famous occurrence of telltale, although it's spelled with a hyphen, is Edgar Allen Poe's story "The Tell-Tale Heart," about a murderer who imagines he's betrayed by the telltale beating of his victim's heart.
なるほど、バレバレの印を形容するのに使えますね。
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