alibi

Napoleon HillのThink and Grow Richを読んでいます。
Building alibis with which to explain away failure is a national pastime. The habit is as old as the human race, and is fatal to success! Why do people cling to their pet alibis? The answer is obvious. They defend their alibi because THEY CREATE them! A man's alibi is the child of his own imagination. It is human nature to defend one's own brainchild.
"alibi" と云うと事件物で使われる不在証明しか浮かんできませんが、上記の "alibi" は言い訳を指しています。辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: informal An excuse or pretext.: a catch-all alibi for failure and inadequacy
・Cambridge English Dictionary: an excuse for something bad or for a failure: After eight years in power, the government can no longer use the previous government's policy as an alibi for its own failure.

clandestine liaison

Napoleon HillのThink and Grow Richを読んでいます。
As a suggestion to any evil-minded person who chooses to find fault with the Duke of Windsor, because his DESIRE was for LIVE, and for openly declaring his love for Wallis Simpson, and giving up his throne for her, let is be remembered that the OPEN DECLARATION was not essential. He could have followed the custom of clandestine liaison which has prevailed in Europe for centuries, whithou giving up either his throne, or the woman of his choice, and there would have been NO COMPLAINT FROM EITHER CHURCH OR LAITY. But this unusual man was built of sterner stuff. His love was clean. It was deep and sincere. It represented the one thing whih, above ALL ELSE he truly DESIRED, therefore, he took what he wanted, and paid the price demanded.
三十年程前に米国会社の日本の "liaison office" の仕事をしていた事があるので、その "liaison" は分かりますが、怪しげな "clandestine liaison" の "liaison" は別の意味で使われているに違いない。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A sexual relationship, especially one that is secret and involves unfaithfulness to a partner.: Their liaisons are unlikely to lead to anything permanent - they're just having a good time.
・Collins Dictionary: You can refer to a sexual or romantic relationship between two people as a liaison.: She embarked on a series of sexual liaisons with society figures.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a sexual relationship, especially between two people not married to each other: He's had a number of liaisons.

beat to the draw

Napoleon HillのThink and Grow Richを読んでいます。
The sponsor! That unfortunate victim who now pays the cost of all radio "entertainment," soon will become idea conscious, and demand something for his money. The man who beats the sponsor to the draw, and supplies programmes that render useful service, is the man who will become rich in this new industry.
この本の話は古いのでメディアの主体がラジオになっています。今やテレビもピークを過ぎ、まだ落ちぶれてはいませんが、インターネットに抜かれている面も増えてきていますね。
"The man who beats the sponsor to the draw" はスポンサーにどう対処して番組を売り込んだのでしょうか？　辞書で調べます。
OneLook Dictionary Searchでは "beat ... to the draw" を見出しにした辞書は見つかりませんでしたが、次の辞書に "beat someone to it" とも言うとあり、以下の説明がありました。
・American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: Also, beat to the draw or punch. React more quickly than someone else. For example, The new salesman tried to serve one of my customers, but I beat him to the draw and Bill was determined to get there first and beat everyone else to the punc0h. The variants imply aggression to get ahead, draw alluding to the drawing of a pistol and punch to hitting with the fists.
なるほど、最近は余り見かけませんが、西部劇の早打ちの決闘ですね。

flair

Napoleon HillのThink and Grow Richを読んでいます。
Those seeing OPPORTUNITY lurking in this suggestion will find valuable aid in the chapter on Organized Planning. Incidentally, an efficient merchandiser of personal services would find a growing demand for his service wherever there are men and women who seek better markets for their serices. By applying the Master Mind principle, a few people with suitable talent, could form an alliance, and have a paying business very quickly. One would need to be a fair writer, with a flair for advertising and selling, one handy at typing and hand lettering, and one should be a first class business getter who would let the world know about the service. If one person possessed all these abilities, he might carry on the business alone, until it outgrew him.
"flair for advertising and selling" の "flair" は文脈からすると、後に出てくる ability と同じ意味の様ですが、辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary:

1) A special or instinctive aptitude or ability for doing something well.: she had a flair for languages
2) Stylishness and originality.: she dressed with flair
・Collins Dictionary:

1) If you have a flair for a particular thing, you have a natural ability to do it well.: ...a friend who has a flair for languages.
2) If you have flair, you do things in an original, interesting, and stylish way.: Their work has all the usual punch, panache and flair you'd expect.
なるほど、1)だと生まれつきの能力、２）だと独創性、センスのある才能の意味になるのですね。

woolgathering

昨日の高校ラグビー決勝も大接戦で良い試合でした。
さて、昨日の問題 "woolgathering" の正解はCです。答えに付いていた例文をメモするのを忘れたので、辞書の説明と例文を引用します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Indulgence in aimless thought or dreamy imagining; absentmindedness.: he wanted to be free to indulge his woolgathering
・Merriam-Webster: indulgence in idle daydreaming: my woolgathering was abruptly interrupted by a question from the flight attendant
語源が気になるところですが、後者の辞書に次の説明がありました。

Woolgathering once literally referred to the act of gathering loose tufts of wool that had gotten caught on bushes and fences as sheep passed by. Woolgatherers must have seemed to wander aimlessly, gaining little for their efforts, for in the mid-16th century "woolgathering" began to appear in figurative phrases such as "my wits (or my mind) went a-woolgathering" - in other words, "my mind went wandering aimlessly." From there, it wasn't long before the word woolgathering came to suggest the act of indulging in purposeless mind-wandering.

woolgathering

大学ラグビーの準決勝、明治と早稲田の試合は接戦で良い試合でしが。帝京は天理に完敗でしたね。
今日は高校ラグビーの決勝、録画の予約をしっかりとしました。
さて、昨日の問題 "carrel" の正解はAで、答えには次の例文が付いていました。
library nook: In graduate school, I'd practically sleep in a carrel before final exams.
'Word Power' のクイズでもう一つ気になった単語は "woolgathering" で、意味は次の三つの内のどれでしょうか？
A: taking notes

B: memorizing
C: daydreaming

carrel

Reader's Digest 9月号の単語クイズ 'Word Power' に気になる単語が二つありました。
その一つは "carrel" で、答えは次の三つからの選択です。
A: library nook
B: songbook
C: punctuation
分かりますか？
答えは次回

Silver Alert

仕事始めは7日なのでまだ休日は続きますが、孫と遊ぶだけで時間が経ちます。昨年後半からブログの更新頻度がめっきり少なくなりましがが、英語の本を読むのは続けているので、今年も同じ様なのんびりとしたペースでブログを更新するつもりです。
さて、Reader's Digest 11月号の単語クイズ 'Word Power' はMerriam-Websterが2018年に加えた８５０の新しい言葉から１５単語を問題に取り上げていました。その中の一つ、和製英語の様な "Silver Alert" を紹介します。
意味は次のいずれかです。
A. warning of a missing
B. notice of a price drop
C. ship's distress

答えはAで例文は No need for a Silver Alert; we found Grandpa tinkering in the attic.
Merriam-Websterを見ると "Silver Alert" の項に次の説明がありました。
"Silver Alert: a widely publicized bulletin that alerts the public when an elderly person or a person with a cognitive disability goes missing

//California joins an estimated 30 states with Silver Alert programs, acknowledging a growing issue for the nation as the population ages and the number of people suffering from some form of dementia increases.
今年は年男、次の年男になる頃には "Silver Alert" の厄介になりそうな年齢になりますが、その頃までこのブログを続けられればその心配はないでしょう。