coven

Reader's Digest 10月号の記事 "The Wiches of Sunset Valley" から引用します。
It was Halloween, my favorite time of the year, and I was on my way to visit my mom, who had suffered a debilitating stroke. I arrived dressed as a witch, not quite sure if it was to lift her spirits or my own. Mom laughed, and I felt every second of it. I didn't want to detach from that positive note, so I remained in costume even when it was time to leave. I noticed some buses passing on their way to the nearby elementary school. I waved, they waved back, and so it began. Over the next 12 years, a coven grew. Now it includes mothers, grandmathers, and great-grandmothers. We gather our broomsticks, cauldron, and various other decorations to set the scene in Mom's front yard.

"coven" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A group or gathering of witches who meet regularly.: ‘On the first day of spring in 1996, our local newspaper ran an article about a local coven of witches.’

・Vocabulary.com: A group of witches is called a coven. In books, a coven of witches often gather at night to make potions and cast spells.
The mythology of witches has them meeting under cover of night, often in mysterious groups of 13. Although there are only three of them, the "weird sisters" in Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" could be considered a coven. To people who follow the contemporary religion called Wicca, a coven is a gathering, no different from a congregation in Christianity. The word coven arose in the mid-1600s, ultimately from the Latin root conventus, "assembly."
ハロウィーンの衣装をまとって集まるので "coven" が使われたのですね。

Smoking Cures Salmon

Reader's Digest 10月号の記事 "Laugh Line" から引用します。
If smoking is so bad, then why does it cure salmon?

この "cure" を取り上げた記憶がありますが、記録にないので再度辞書の意味を引用します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Preserve (meat, fish, tobacco, or an animal skin) by various methods such as salting, drying, or smoking.: home-cured ham

・Collins Dictionary: When food, tobacco, or animal skin is cured, it is dried, smoked, or salted so that it will last for a long time.: Legs of pork were cured and smoked over the fire.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: to treat food, tobacco, etc. with smoke, salt, etc. in order to preserve it: cured meats

legume and pulse

Reader's Digest 10月号の記事 "How To Eat Better for the Planet" からの引用です。
Which foods have the largest impact?
In general, beef and lamb have the biggest climate footprint per gram of protein--livestock accounts for roughly the same amount of emissions as all the cars, trucks, airplanes, and ships in the world today--while plant based foods like beans, pulses, grains, and soy tend to have the smallest effect. Pork, chicken, eggs, and mollusks such as clams, oysters, and scallops are somewhere in the middle.

"pulses" は１０年程前（5/25/2009）に調べて '2&5 and pulse' の題（2&5はeat at least 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegies each dayの略）でブログに書いた時に覚えましたが、豆の一種と記憶しているだけです。英語で豆というとbean, pea, lentil, legume, pulseと色々あり、それぞれがどの様な豆を指しているのか分かりません。この際にこれらの違いはどうかと調べて見ました。
違いが分からない英米人も多いようで、違いを説明する次の様なサイトがいくつもありました。

A Visual Guide To Pulses: https://pulses.org/what-are-pulses/visual-guide-to-pulses

The essential guide to beans, pulses, legumes and lentils: https://www.sbs.com.au/food/explainer/essential-guide-beans-pulses-legumes-and-lentils
What’s the Difference Between a Legume, Bean, and Pulse?: https://www.patriciabannan.com/blog/nutrition/whats-the-difference-between-a-legume-bean-and-pulse/
上の何れかのサイトを見ればだいたい分かりますが、その一部を下に引用します。
Legumes include all types and forms of beans and peas that come from the Fabaceae (or Leguminosae) botanical family. In other words, legumes are the umbrella family that all beans, peas, and pulses fall under, and include thousands of varieties grown around the world.
Pulses are annual crops that yield between one and 12 grains or seeds. The term “pulses” is limited to crops harvested solely as dry grains, which differentiates them from other vegetable crops that are harvested while still green.
なるほど、豆の総称である "Legumes" と "Pulses" の意味と違いが分かり、大分すっきりしました。

busker

The IKIGAI Journeyからの最後の引用です。

Ideas for ramdom acts of kindness
The possibilities are almost infinite--there are as many as there are human needs, but these RAK can be used as a starting point for adding a spritual dimension to your life:
...
・Toss a busker a coin.
...


"busker" は忘れていましたが、１０年前（4/17/2010）に取り上げた単語でした。

oneiric lucidity

The IKIGAI Journeyを読んでいます。
Scientists have established that most lucid dreams happen in the REM sleep stage, when there is most brain and physical activity, and that there are two main triggers which bring about oneiric lucidity.

1. Something unexpected or strange happens in the dream (for example, places and things that are not exactly as they are when we are awake), which enables us to realize we are asleep. In this way, we continue in the dream, but are aware we are dreaming and are able to interact with the sleeping mind.

2. When we are woken briefly by some external noise, we quickly fall back into the same dream as before, but this time we are aware we are asleep because we were awake seconds earlier.

最初 "lucid dreams" の意味がピンとこなかったのですが、"lucid dreams" を引き起こす原因の説明が続いていたので分かりました。しかし、同じ文の最後に出てきた "oneiric lucidity" の "oneiric" は全く見たことのない単語なので辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: formal Relating to dreams or dreaming.: In this spectacular climax, part oneiric and fantastical, the house on fire becomes, in its pyrotechnical wizardry, a final recalcitrant figure to Australian suburban space.’

・Collins Dictionary: of or having to do with dreams: The special effects are eerily primitive, adding to the ghostly, oneiric atmosphere when he gets there.

'The IKIGAI Journey' には難しい単語、表現はほとんど出てきませんが、唯一この "oneiric" が例外でした。

parachute guaranteed

Reader's Digest 10月号の記事 "Humor in Uniform" から引用します。
While in paratrooper training school, I asked the instructor, "What happens if the parachute doesn't open?"
"It's guaranteed," he reassured me. "If it doesn't open, just bring it back."

hanzi characters

時々見るNHKのCool Japanで紹介された本 'Ikigai' を読もうと地元の図書館から借りようとしたら、テレビで紹介された 'Ikigai' の正式なタイトルは 'Ikigai The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life' の事だと思いますが、この本は貸し出し中でした。そこで同じ著者(Garcia HectorとMiralles Francescの共著)の 'The IKIGAI Journey A Practical Guide to Finding Happiness and Purpose the Japanese Way' を借りて読むことにしました。
'Ikigai' から引用します。
Creating something new through symbiosis
Before the fourth century, Japanese was non-written language. Instead of creating their own system, the Japanese copied the Chinese writing system based on hanzi characters.
Obviously, the hanzi were not a perfect fit for their language, so they had to change them for what are known today as kanji characters. Two new alphabets even had to be created: hiragana and katakana.
日本の漢字の元の文字が "hanzi characters" ですか。 漢字は英語で "Chinese character" とばっかり覚えていたので以外です。英英辞書を見ても "hanzi" の説明を載せているのはほとんどありませんが、次の説明を見つけました。
・Wiktionary: Borrowed from Mandarin 漢字 (hànzì, “Han characters”), from Middle Chinese 漢 (xàn, “Han dynasty, China”) + 字 (dzì, “[written] character”). Compare Cantonese 漢字 (hon3 zi6), Min Nan 漢字 (hàn-jī, hàn-lī) and Japanese 漢字 (kanji). Doublet of hanja, honji and kanji.
・Free On-line Dictionary of Computing: (From the Han dynasty, 206 B.C.E to 25 C.E.) One of the set of glyphs common to Chinese (where they are called "hanzi"), Japanese (where they are called kanji), and Korean (where they are called hanja).
オンライン百科事典のWikipediaには次の説明がありました。
Chinese characters, also called Hanzi (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字; pinyin: Hànzì; lit.: 'Han characters'), are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. They have been adapted to write other Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as kanji. Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world. By virtue of their widespread current use in East Asia, and historic use throughout the Sinosphere, Chinese characters are among the most widely adopted writing systems in the world by number of users.
中国語では漢を "han" と発音するのでしょうか？

debonair

映画は昔も今も滅多に見ませんが、コネリー氏の死報を聞いて思い出しました、５０年程前にドイツに研修で半年ほど住んでいた時にション・コネリーの007を見た事があります。特に記憶に残っているのはドイツ語版なので（ドイツなので当然）007をヌルヌルジーベンと発音するのが滑稽に聞こえたことです。ドイツ人には何でもないのでしょうが、ヌルヌルが日本語のオノマトペに聞こえて、生きたウナギを手づかみすることを連想しました。ドイツ語はろくに分からない私でしたが、アクション物なので映画は楽しめたことも記憶に残っています。
Japan Times Online November 2のコネリー氏死報から引用します。
Sean Connery, the actor who introduced world to James Bond, dies at 90
Though he made more than 60 films, Connery was most closely affiliated with the debonair fictional British spy he portrayed seven times.

"debonair" の意味を辞書で見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Confident, stylish, and charming (typically used of a man): ‘all the men looked debonair and handsome in white tie and tails’

・Collins Dictionary: A man who is debonair is confident, charming, and well-dressed.: He was a handsome, debonair, death-defying racing-driver.

ション・コネリーのジェイムズ・ボンドにピッタリですね。外来語、恐らくフランス語の響きを感じます。語源辞書もチェックします。
Online Etymology Dictionary: c. 1200, "mild, gentle, kind courteous," from Old French debonaire, from de bon' aire "of good race," originally used of hawks, hence, "thoroughbred" (opposite of French demalaire); aire here is perhaps from Latin ager "place, field" (from PIE root *agro- "field") on notion of "place of origin." Used in Middle English to mean "docile, courteous," it became obsolete and was revived with an altered sense of "pleasantly light-hearted and affable" (1680s). OED says it is "now a literary archaism, often assimilated in spelling to mod.F. débonnaire." Related: Debonairly.

maudlin

Danielle SteelのMiracleは読み終わりました。'Miracle' から取り上げる最後の単語です。
He worked hard, and needed some rest, at least on Sundays, since he worked extra hours for Quinn on Saturdays.
"I think I can handle it," Jack said with an easy smile. "I feel kind of sorry for her. I was talking to the mailman the other day, he says her son died last year. Maybe she needs a break and a helping hand." Quinn nodded. He couldn't argue with that. And he made no comment, sympathetic or otherwise, about her son. He hadn't told Jack about Doug. There was no reason to, and Quinn thought it sounded maudlin. It was enough that he knew Jane had died. But he and the neighbor had something in common, not that it was something he wanted to talk about.

"maudlin" は多分初めて見る単語だと思います。辞書を引きます。

・Cambridge English Dictionary: feeling sad and sorry for yourself, especially after you have drunk a lot of alcohol: The text, a curious amalgam of the beautiful and the maudlin, the vivid and the incomprehensible, offers us some possible meanings, but only some.
・Infoplease: tearfully or weakly emotional; foolishly sentimental: a maudlin story of a little orphan and her lost dog.
次の辞書には語源の説明もありました。

・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary: overly emotional, sentimental, and often tearful: Some people are angry drunks, while others become sappy and maudlin. (sentimental, overemotional)
Tips: Maudlin was formed from the name of Mary Magdalene, who was often depicted crying with sorrow for her sins. Maudlin can refer to such excessive emotion that it seems insincere.

Danielle Steelの小説、気に入ったのでまた読みたいと思います。

fitfully

先日Danielle SteelのMiracleを読み終えたと書きましたが、この小説からの単語、表現はまだ何も投稿していませんでした。Miracleから二つの単語を取り上げます。　
さて、この著者の小説を読むのは初めてですが、登場人物が一度に大勢は出てこないので非常に読みやすい。
He found it nearly impossible to sleep that night with the anticipation of it. All he hoped now was that he would love it.
He slept fitfully, and was up and dressed by seven the next morning.

"nearly impossible to sleep" とあるので "fitfully" は余り良く眠れなかったことを意味していると思いますが、どの様に眠れない時に使うのか辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Not regularly or continuously; intermittently.: he slept fitfully’

・Collins Dictionary: (fitful) Something that is fitful happens for irregular periods of time or occurs at irregular times, rather than being continuous.: Colin drifted off into a fitful sleep.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: often stopping and starting and not happening in a regular or continuous way: a fitful sleep
"fit" に発作の意味があるのでどんな眠り方かと思いましたが、結局熟睡できない時に使われるのですね。
もう一つの覚えたい単語があったのでそれは次回取り上げます。