Reader's Digest 5月号の記事 Why There's No Clean Way to Peel An Orangeからの引用です。
Those tiny dimples on citrus fruits are oil glands, where the essential orange, lemon, and lime oil that inevitably get spritzed all over your hands are synthesized.
"essential oil" はカタカナでもよく見かけますが、意味を気にしていませんでした。英語で見たのは初めてだと思いますが、辞書で意味を確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A natural oil typically obtained by distillation and having the characteristic fragrance of the plant or other source from which it is extracted.: Avoid buying essential oils in plastic bottles as the essential oil can dissolve the plastic.
・Collins Dictionary: any of various volatile organic oils present in plants, usually containing terpenes and esters and having the odour or flavour of the plant from which they are extracted: used in flavouring and perfumery: Plant essential oils can contain chemicals that might have a direct effect on the patient or react with prescription medicines.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: an oil, usually with a strong smell, that is taken from a plant and is used to make perfume, or for rubbing into a person's body during massage: Lavender, peppermint, and jasmine are essential oils that are widely available.
私は知りませんでしたが香水を使う女性には常識の単語でしょうね。
Reader's Digest 5月号の記事 WHERE THE @#$% AM I? からの引用です。
アイスランドをレンタカーでドライブした筆者が車載のＧＰＳのお陰でとんでもない所にたどり着いて歓迎された話です。
Out in the streets, which were full of revelers celebrating the annual Winter Lights Festival, Icelanders corralled the Lost Tourist for selfies and plied him with shots of the local poison, Brennivin, an unsweetened schnapps.
4/12/2013 に取り上げた "selfies" は今では誰でも知っている単語ですが、10年前にはなかった単語ですね。
ところで "ply" は過去の２度（7/31/2012と6/24/2011）取り上げていますが、上の引用文の "ply" はそのどちらの意味とも違うようです。辞書を見ます。
、 ・Oxford English Dictionary: (ply someone with) Provide someone with (food or drink) in a continuous or insistent way.: a flight attendant who plied them with soft drinks
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to keep giving a person something, usually food or drink: John's been plying me with drinks all evening.
・Collins Dictionary: If you ply someone with food or drink, you keep giving them more of it.: The poor priest was plied with drink at a dinner party.
"ply someone with something" は食べ物や飲み物だけではなく、質問攻めなどでも使われるとも書かれています。
If you ply someone with questions, you keep asking them questions.
Emotional First Aidを読んでいます。
Scientists have investigated several such "will power workouts," including focusing on our posture (great for slouchers); avoiding cursing (more effective for potty mouths than it is for the "gosh darn it!" set); avoiding sweets, cookies, or cakes (great if you have a sweet tooth); squeezing a handgrip twice a day for as long as we can (handgrips are cheap and can be found in sporting goods sotres); and the one I think works best--using our nondominant hand.
"potty mouths" の意味を辞書で見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Using or characterized by bad language.: a potty-mouthed rapper
・Wiktionary: The characteristic of regularly using vulgar language, especially strong profanities.: Sometimes this noun is used attributively, as, for example, in: The language of my potty-mouth coworkers can be very offensive.
"potty" にオマルの意味があるのが語源かと推測しますが、語源を説明している辞書は見つかりませんでした。
Emotional First Aidを読んでいます。
These two systems are located primarily in the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex, regions of the brain I have described in earlier chapters. These regions are also responsible for such executive functions as self-monitoring, coping with stressors, making decisions and weighin alternatives, all of which draw on the same limited energy source.
ストレスは日本語になっていて、代わりの日本語は思い浮かびません。"stressors" はストレスを与える原因、要因であることも直ぐに分かりますが、日本語でストレッサーと言うのは聞いたことがありません。日本語ならやはりストレスの原因あるいはストレスの要因となるのでしょう。
・Collins Dictionary: an event, experience, etc, that causes stress: The problem seems to be more severe and last longer when the stressor is of human design, like the one you encountered.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a stimulus that causes stress: Examples of stressor in a sentence: Credit card debt is a major stressor in her life.
Reader's Digest 5月号の記事 Words To Live (Longer & Better) からの引用です。
Researchers from Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angels, conducted a series of studies to demonstrate the differences between students who wrote out their notes and those who typed them. Both did well, though longhand note takers had a stronger grasp of the overall concepts of the lectures and were able to remember and understand them after a week had passed.
"longhand" は 9/24/2010 に取り上げました。
ブログを書くのに手書きはしないし、辞書の説明文はタイプどころかコピベです。それで、覚えた単語を忘れることが早いのだ。しかし今更手書きはできない。
Reader's Digest 5月号の記事 All In A Day's Work からの引用です。
My friend, a county public health nurse, was reviewing a student's medical records when she noticed something; The girl and her mother shared the same first name.
"Doesn't that ever get confusing?" my friend asked.
"Oh no," the girl said. "I just call her Mum.
" 親子で同名ですか、日本人では聞いたことはありませんね。私の家では子供が生まれてからは夫婦間でお互いを呼ぶのにも「お父さん」、「お母さん」になり、この習慣は子供が家から離れても変わりません。考えてみるとこれも笑えますね。
Justice seen hamstrung as experts warn court interpreters should be licensed
Courts are supposed to be bastions of justice. But equal justice may be thwarted for some defendants owing to language barriers.
"hamstrung" だと原形は "hamstring" の様ですが、 "hamstring" は足のどこかの腱の意味しか知らないので辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (usually be hamstrung) Severely restrict the efficiency or effectiveness of.: we were hamstrung by a total lack of knowledge
・Collins Dictionary: If you hamstring someone, you make it very difficult for them to take any action.: If he becomes the major opposition leader, he could hamstring a conservative-led coalition.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to limit the amount of something that can be done or the ability or power of someone to do something: The company was hamstrung by traditional but inefficient ways of conducting business.
アキレス腱（Achilles tendon）を切られた様な状態ですね。ところで、"hamstring" は "ham" と "string" の二つの名詞が合成されてできたので、Online Etymology Dictionaryによると文法的には "hamstring" は可笑しいそうです。
1640s, "to disable, render useless," a figurative verbal extension from hamstring (n.) "tendon at the back of the knee." Cutting this would render a person or animal lame. Literal sense of the verb is attested from 1670s. Since it is a verb from a noun-noun compound, hamstrung as a past participle is technically incorrect.
Sounds of silence? Trump’s alpha-male body language speaks volumes
記事の冒頭を引用します。
The alpha-male handshake. The deadpan reaction from NATO leaders. The presidential push to the front of the pack.
Even if Donald Trump hasn’t done a lot of public speaking during his big trip abroad, the body language of the president and those around him has spoken volumes.
先日の夜のＴＶニュースでトランプ大統領がモンテネグロの首相を押しのけて前に出た場面を思い出しました。
"alpha-male" をOneLookで検索するとWordnikとUrban Dictionaryの辞書のみが引っかかりました。 "alpha male" で検索するとほとんどの辞書に "alpha male" の項目がありました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A man tending to assume a dominant or domineering role in social or professional situations.: two alpha males constantly competing to be the best
・Collins Dictionary: the dominant male animal or person in a group: We were young alpha males, competing hard and partying hard.
トランプ氏は大統領ではなくても品が悪いこと極まりないですね。
最近北朝鮮が頻繁にミサイルをぶっ放していますが、Emotional First Aidを読んでいると、ここにもミサイルが出てきました。
This experiment helps explain how a crowd's mood can switch from benign to furious within a few seconds. All it takes is for a few people to start sounding angry and behaving angrily, for example by yelling or throwing missiles, for others to respond in the same way.
このミサイルは人が投げるものなので、まず投石を連想しますが、辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: An object which is forcibly propelled at a target, either by hand or from a mechanical weapon.: Merseyside Police said bottles, cans and other missiles were thrown into the crowd and at police.
・Collins Dictionary: Anything that is thrown as a weapon can be called a missile.: The football supporters began throwing missiles, one of which hit the referee.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: any object that is thrown with the intention of causing injury or damage: Stones, bottles, and other missiles were thrown at the police.
なるほど、ミサイルは石だけではなく、ビンでも缶でも何でもありですね。
Impulse by Dr David Lewisを読み終えたので、次の本を借りるまで又Emotional First Aidを読みます。
In a study conducted in my own laboratory, autistic participants were shown a specially recorded drama. The short sequence depicted a man who is having an affair with his wife's best friend. Although non-autistic members of the audience twigged what was going on almost immediately, none of those with autism had the slightest idea.
"twig" の単語を覚えたのは、６０～７０年代に細い手足の若い女性歌手、Twiggyの歌が流行した時ですが、動詞の "twig" は5年前 (1/5/2012)に Kazuo Ishiguroの 'Never Let Me Go' を読んで知りました。
動詞としての "twig" は英国人は使いますが、米国では知らない人も多い様です。
"twig": Understand or realize something.: it was amazing that Graham hadn't twigged before (Oxford English Dictionary)
動詞としての "twig" の語源に触れている箇所をThe Word Detectiveから抜粋します。
The verb "twig" (unrelated to "twig" meaning "small branch") has been in colloquial use in Britain since the mid-18th century. "I twig" is a more elegant way of saying "I see" or "I get it." The somewhat conservative folks at the Oxford English Dictionary don't even want to hazard a guess as to the origin of "twig" in this sense, but the etymologist Eric Partridge traced it back to the Gaelic word "tuig," meaning "I understand."
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