pushing forty

角田光代の "Woman on the Other Shore" を読んでいると、先日（9/17/2020）取り上げた　"on the wrong side of 35" に似た表現が出てきました。
On Aoi's right sat an older woman with graying hair gathered at the back of her head; on her left was a baby-faced woman who wore no makeup but looked like she must be pushing forty.
"pushing forty" と４０歳の関係は何でしょう？
・Collins Dictionary: If you say that someone is pushing a particular age, you mean that they are nearly that age.: Pushing 40, he was an ageing rock star.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: to be almost 50, 60, etc. years old: He looks great and yet he must be pushing 60 by now.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.: To be approaching a particular age.: I was never sore after my workouts until I was pushing 40.
"pushing forty" は４０歳に近い、どちらかと言うと "on the right side of forty" に近い様だ。

megaversity

長い間待っていた角田光代の "Woman on the Other Shore"(translated by Wayne P. Lammers)がやっと図書館から借りれました。
　
The woman she'd interviewed wih two days before had told her she'd get back to her today. Despite her perfect string of rejections so far, Sayoko hoped this time might be different. In fact, she was secretly counting on it. Not only was the woman Sayoko's own age, but they'd gone to the same school. Since it was a megaversity with a huge student body, it wasn't actually all that unusual to run into fellow alumni, but this woman behaved as if she'd found a long lost friend.
最初に取り上げる単語は "megaversity" で意味は容易に推測できます。日本語で言うマンモス大学の事ですね。一応辞書を見ます。

辞書には "megaversity" の項目はありませんでした。　又、 "mega-versity" あるいは "mega university" でも見当たりませんでした。　しかし、"mega" の項目はあり次の説明があります。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Very large; huge.: a mega city’
・Collins Dictionary: Mega- combines with nouns and adjectives in order to emphasize the size, quality, or importance of something.
マンモス大学にあたる英語 "mammoth university" はどうかと辞書を見ましたが、その項目も見当たりません。　しかし、 "mammoth" にも次の説明があります。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Huge.: ‘a mammoth corporation’

・Collins Dictionary: of gigantic size or importance: a mammoth organization
従って、"mammoth university" は英語として通じるようです。

Guilty Pleasure

Reader's Digest 7/8月合併号の記事 'In Praise of Guilty Pleasure' からの引用します。
We all have them: TV shows and movies we love, even though we just know they're bad. Trashy books we simply can't put down. Awful earworms we hate to love.
These are our guilty pleasures--what you might call the junk food in our media diets. Because it's often used in a winking way, the term guilty pleasure feels like a joke we're proving we're in on. But if that joke is about something that brings us genuine joy and isn't harming anyone, then what's the punch line? Shouldn't we be free to enjoy whatever we like?
"guilty pleasure" とは面白い表現ですね。意味は自明ですが、一応辞書の説明を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Something, such as a movie, television program, or piece of music, that one enjoys despite feeling that it is not generally held in high regard.: ‘everybody has a guilty pleasure—for me, it has to be mid 70s disco’

・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) Something that brings pleasure but is considered taboo, unadvisable or lowbrow.: For the renowned sushi chef, eating fish sticks drowned in tartar sauce was a guilty pleasure.

・Merriam-Webster: something pleasurable that induces a usually minor feeling of guilt: Treating yourself to dessert may be your one guilty pleasure.

be home by a quarter of 12

Reader's Digest 7/8月合併号のジョーク特集から
Nutty Professors
A mathematician wanders home at 3 a.m., and his irate wife yells, "You 're late! You said you'd be home by 11:45!"
"Actually," the mathematician replies, "I said I'd be home by a quarter of 12."

確かに11:45なら 'a quarter to 12'ですね。数学の教授が妻に言ったのは 'a quarter of 12'なので '12/4' = ３時でした。

on the wrong side of thirty-five

角田光代の 'Woman on the Other Shore' を１ヵ月以上も前に予約しています。しかし、予約順序は１位なのに図書館の貸し出し最長期間（４週間）を過ぎても貸し出し中のままで借りれません。現在借りている人が期限を無視して本を返していないに違いない。 しかたなく、Jane Austenの 'Sense and Sensibility' を読み始めました。但し、原書ではなく多読用に書き直された易しい英語版です。
第２章に首を傾げる表現がありました。 "he was on the wrong side of thirty-five" とは一体３５歳より若いのか年を取っているのか、どうでしょうか？　その箇所を引用するのに本を見ながらタイプするのは面倒なのですが、前回 'Pride and Prejudice' の様な古典はオンライン上に全文が掲載されている場合が多い事を知ったので調べると、'Sense and Sensibility' の全文が https://www.gutenberg.org/files/161/161-h/161-h.htm に掲載されていました。該当の箇所は次の通り。

Colonel Brandon, the friend of Sir John, seemed no more adapted by resemblance of manner to be his friend, than Lady Middleton was to be his wife, or Mrs. Jennings to be Lady Middleton's mother. He was silent and grave. His appearance however was not unpleasing, in spite of his being in the opinion of Marianne and Margaret an absolute old bachelor, for he was on the wrong side of five and thirty; but though his face was not handsome, his countenance was sensible, and his address was particularly gentlemanlike.
多読版では 'thirty-five' となっている箇所も原書では 'five and thirty' と古い表現になっています。
さて、"on the wrong side of thirty-five" の意味を辞書で調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Somewhat more than (a specified age): he cheerfully admits he is the wrong side of fifty
・Merriam-Webster Dictionary: used with an age (such as 30, 40, 50, etc.) to say that someone is older than that age: She's still on the wrong side of 40.
なるほど、そして　"on the right side of thirty-five" となると "that someone is younger than that age" となるそうです。
多読版などで直ぐに読み終わりました。辞書を引くことがないので原書を読む十分の一程度の時間で、読み終わりました。私のレベルでは古典物は多読版で読むのが良いですね。

importune

"pride and prejudice" を読み終わりました。原書は多読用のリライト版とは比べ物にならない程厄介でした。特に現在でも使われている単語なのに意味やニュアンスが異なるものが多い様に感じました。物語の背景は英国で二百年以上前の上流階級の暮らしでしたが、違いが良く分かり非常に興味深い話でした。気に入ったのは主人公のElizabethが好きになったMr. Darcyの伯母、Lady Catherineが、自分の娘をMr. Darcyと結婚させたいために、身分、家柄、資産等々の違いを理由に、Mr. Darcyとの結婚から手を引けと非常に高圧的に迫って来たのに対し、きっぱりと断るやりとりの箇所です。その一部を引用します。
“Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?”
Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question, she could not but say, after a moment’s deliberation:
“I am not.”
Lady Catherine seemed pleased.
“And will you promise me, never to enter into such an engagement?”
“I will make no promise of the kind.”
“Miss Bennet I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find a more reasonable young woman. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away till you have given me the assurance I require.”
“And I certainly never shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the wished-for promise make their marriage at all more probable? Supposing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin? Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill-judged. You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine. I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject.”
難しい単語 "importune" の意味を辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Harass (someone) persistently for or to do something.: reporters importuned him with pointed questions

・Collins Dictionary: If someone importunes another person, they ask them for something or ask them to do something, in an annoying way.: One can no longer walk the streets without seeing beggars importuning passers-by.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: to make repeated, forceful requests for something, usually in a way that is annoying or causing slight problems: As a tourist, you are importuned for money the moment you step outside your hotel.
現在の状況は分かりませんが、1980年代にマンハッタンに車で行くことが何度かありましたが、交差点の赤信号で止まる度に、男が近づいて来て車のフロントガラスを勝手に磨き始め、お金を要求された経験を思い出しました。

pin money

Jane Austenの "pride and prejudice" を読んでいます。
“Good gracious! Lord bless me! only think! dear me! Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it! And is it really true? Oh! my sweetest Lizzy! how rich and how great you will be! What pin money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! Jane’s is nothing to it--nothing at all. I am so pleased—-so happy. Such a charming man! So handsome! So tall! Oh, my dear Lizzy! pray apologise for my having disliked him so much before. I hope he will overlook it. Dear, dear Lizzy. A house in town! Every thing that is charming! Three daughters married! Ten thousand a year! Oh, Lord! What will become of me. I shall go distracted.”
"pin money" はどんなお金を指しているのでしょうか？
・Oxford English Dictionary: historical An allowance to a woman from her husband for clothing and other personal expenses.
Origin: Late 17th century from pin in the sense ‘decorative clasp for the hair or a garment. The term originally denoted an allowance made to a woman for dress and other personal expenses by her husband.
・Collins Dictionary: (formerly) an allowance by a husband to his wife for personal expenditure
古語ですね。しかし、現在でも少額のお金の意味で使われているようです。
・Oxford English Dictionary:　A small sum of money for spending on inessentials.: working two days a week in the boutique gave her a little pin money
Cambridge English Dictionaryに掲載の次の例文は現在の意味で使われていますが、元々の意味を連想できる文章になっていますね。
It is not my case to defend the farmyard flocks of hens, which, by tradition, have provided farm housewives with pin money.

Eternal Life

Reader's Digest 7/8合併号のジョーク特集記事からの引用です。
Eternal Life
I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
私はさすがに 'Eternal Life' は現実的とは考えませんが、目標としては孫が成人するまでは元気で生きていたい。私も 'So far, so good.' です。

smartwatch

Reader's Digest 7/8月合併号の 'All in a Day's Work' からの抜粋です。
One of my wife's third graders was wearing a Fibit watch, which prompted my wife to ask, "Are you tracking your steps?"
"No," said the little girl. " I wear this for Mommy so she can show Daddy when he gets home."
"Fibit watch" は知りませんでしたが、文脈からいわゆるスマートウォッチのブランドの一種だと推測できます。
最近外では走らなくなったので使わなくなりましたが、私も数年前までマラソンの練習やレースに国産のスマートウォッチを利用していました。便利でしたが、GPSの立ち上げが上手くいかなかったり、時間がかかったりしたので使わなくなりましたが、最近のモデルは良くなったのでしょうか？

Everything's big in Texas

Reader's Digest 7/8合併号のジョーク特集記事からの引用です。
A blind man visits Texas. When he gets to his hotel room, he feels the bed. "Wow, this bed is big!"
"Everything's big in Texas," says the bellhop.
The man heads downstairs to the bar, settles onto a huge barstool, and orders a beer. A mug is placed between his hands.
"Wow, these drinks are big!"
"Everything's big in Texas," says the bartender.
After downing a few, the blind man asks where the bathroom is. "Second door to the right," says the bartender.
The blind man heads for the bathroom but accidentally opens the door that leads to the swimming pool and falls in. Popping his head up from under the water, he flails his arm and shouts, "Don't flush! Don't flush!"