sine qua non

Isabella Birdの "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" を読んでいます。彼女が旅をしたのは、何せ江戸時代が終わってまだ十年たっただけなので、英語を片言でも話せる人間を探すのは容易ではなかったと想像できます。旅をするにあたって、通訳選びをしている個所から引用します。

Several of my kind new acquaintances interested themselves about the (to me) vital matter of a servant interpreter, and many Japanese came to "see after the place." The speaking of intelligible English is a sine qua non, and it was wonderful to find the few words badly pronounced and worse put together, which were regarded by the candidates as a sufficient qualification. Can you speak English? "Yes." What wages do you ask? "Twelve dollars a month." This was always said glibly, and in each case sounded hopeful. Whom have you lived with? A foreign name distorted out of all recognition, as was natural, was then given.

この後に三人の候補との面談の話があって、決めかかるのですが、最後に18歳の若い男が出てきて、一番優秀かと思ったらそうでもなく...

This would-be paragon had no reommendations, and accounted for this by saying that they had been burned in a recent fire in his father's house. Mr. Marie was not forthcoming, and more than this, I suspected and disliked the boy. However, he understood my English and I his, being very anxious to begin my travels, I engaged his for twelve dollars a month, and soon afterwords he came back with a contract, in which he declares by all that he holds most sacred that he will serve me faithfully for the wages agreed upon, and to this document he affixed his seal and I my name. The next day he asked me for a month's wages in advance, which I gave him, but Dr. H. consolingly suggested that I should never see him agai!

しかし、結局このItoと呼ばれる18歳の青年が通訳として選ばれました。
ラテン語らしき "sine qua non" は前にもどこかで見たことがありますが、忘れているので調べ直します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: An essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary.: grammar and usage are the sine qua non of language teaching and learning
・Collins Dictionary: A sine qua non is something that is essential if you want to achieve a particular thing.: Successful agricultural reform is also a sine qua non of Mexico's modernisation. [
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a necessary condition without which something is not possible: An interest in children is a sine qua non of teaching.

draught-animals

１ヶ月程前に見たNHKのBS番組（正確な題名は忘れたが再放送、もしくは再々放送の番組）の基になった、明治の初期に英国の女性が日本の東北、北海道を東京から旅をしたことを本人(Isabella Bird）が著した「日本奥地紀行」の原本 "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" を読み始めました。期待通り、興味深い内容、記述が続きます。
Isabella Birdが旅したのは1878年で、東京は西洋化が急速に始まり、下に引用する個所は人力車についての記述です。
Outside were about fifty of the now well-known jin-ri-ki-shas, and the air was full of a buzz produced by the rapid reiteration of this uncouth word by fifty tongues. 'This conveyance, as you know, is a feature of Japan, growing is importance every day. It was only invented seven years ago, and already there are nearly 23,000 in one city, and men can make so much more by drawing them than by almost any kind of skilled labour, that thousands of fine young men desert agricultural pursuits and flock into the towns to make draught-animals of themselves, though it is said that the average duration of a man's life after the takes to running is only five years, and that the runners fall victims in large numbers to agravated forms of heart and lung disease.

"draught-animals" を調べます。これはイギリス英語で米語では "draft animals" と綴られます。

・Vocabulary.comy: an animal used for pulling heavy loads: In other parts of Indonesia, the buffalo are draft animals, but here they are venerated and carefully cared for.
・Wiktionary: A strong working animal used to draw a load like a cart, a plow etc., as opposed to a mount.

March Madness bracket

Reader's　Digest 3月号の記事 "LAUGHTER THE BEST Medicine" からの引用です。

About 10 percent of Americans fill out a March Madness bracket for a pool at the office or with friends.

まず "March Madness" が分からないので辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Everyone talks about March Madness in college basketball.

なるほど、けれどまだその後に続く "bracket" のここでの意味が分からないので英英辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: diagram representing the sequence of games in a sports tournament, especially as used for making predictions about its outcome.: with the March Madness tournament half the fun is filling out your bracket

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a diagram (= drawing) showing a series of games played in a tournament (= sports competition): In some tournaments, the full bracket is determined before the first game

そう言えば昔、甲子園大会が始まると職場でどこの高校が優勝するかの賭けをする回覧が回っていた事を思い出しましたが、似ていますね。

a belay to anchor equipment

Reader's　Digest 3月号の記事 "RESCUE ON THE HIGH RISE BRIDGE" からの引用です。

Poag and Gregory gathered the rest of the equipment they expected to need from their truck: more rope, a pulley system called a set-of-fours, and a belay to anchor equipment to at the scene.

"belay" はかなり前（9/9/2013）に取り上げていましたが、忘れているので再度英英辞書の説明を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Fix (a running rope) around a cleat, rock, pin, or other object, to secure it.: I realised that the sump rope was belayed some 4m from the end of the sump, and so I'd crossed the sump pool under water.

・Collins Dictionary: to secure (a climber) to a mountain by tying the rope off round a rock spike, piton, nut, etc: Some belay devices may also be used as descenders.

・Dictionary.com: a rock, bush, or other object sturdy enough for a running rope to be passed around it to secure a hold.: In 1981, using ropes and a belay, filmmaker Eric Perlman and skier Bob Bellman descended the Cables Route.

green thumb

Reader's　Digest 3月号の記事 "10 MINUTE LIFE FIXES" からの引用です。
Preclean Your Green Thumb
Gardening gloves are a good idea--if you remember where you put them. Another solution: Run your fingernails across a bar of soap before you dig into the dirt. The soap will keep out the dirt and help you scrub up later.
家庭菜園が趣味な人や園芸家にはもうこの "Green Thumbs" はお馴染みですね。NHKの番組「やさいの時間」でもこの言葉を聞いた覚えがあると思いましたが、番組ではイギリス英語の "green fingers" を使っていた気もします。　このブログでも取り上げたと思いましたが、記録にありませんでした。
そこで改めて英英辞書の説明を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Natural talent for growing plants. British term green fingers: If you have a green thumb, why not provide lawn care for some of your neighbors?

・Collins Dictionary: If someone has a green thumb, they are very good at gardening and their plants grow well.: She has an unbelievably green thumb, she can grow anything.

・Random House Unabridged Dictionaryy: an exceptional aptitude for gardening or for growing plants successfully: Houseplants provide much pleasure for the city dweller with a green thumb.

under the radar

Reader's　Digest 3月号の記事 "10 MINUTE LIFE FIXES" からの引用です。

Keep Your Fly Closed
Realize a little too late that the zipper on your favorite jeans has gone faulty and won't stay up? Slip a key ring off your key chain and scurry away to the bathroom. Attach the pull to the ring as you would a key, close the zipper, and then hang the key ring over your pants button. The zipper will stay up on the teeth and under the radar until you can get the pants to a tailor.

"fly" がいわゆる社会の窓の意味であることは知っていますが、"under the radar" の意味が分かりません。辞書を見ます。

・Merriam-Webster English Dictionary: not getting attention : unnoticed: He tried to stay under the radar as he went about his business.

・Wiktionary: Without attracting notice; in an undetected or secretive manner.: Institutional change has not happened. But it's done quietly under the radar at lots of places.
Etymology: An allusion to flying an airplane at an altitude too low for radar detection.

・Urban Dictionary: when someone is in a situation where very little or no attention is drawn to them: somehow they managed to stay under the radar for years while skimming all that cash from the bank.
なるほど、語源が分かったので直ぐに覚えられそう。

pillion

Salman Rushdieの "Midnight's Children" から最後の引用です。

When Shiva grasped Parvati by the wrist, I was with Picture Singh at an emergency conference of the city's many red cells, discussing the ins and outs of the national railway strike; when Parvati, without demurring, took her place on the pillion of a hero's Honda, I was busily denouncing the government's arrests of union leaders.

"pillion" の意味を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: A seat for a passenger behind a motorcyclist.: Motorcyclists and pillion passengers must wear helmets at all times and motorists must wear safety belts.

・Collins Dictionary: If someone rides pillion on a motorcycle or bicycle, they sit behind the person who is controlling it.: She rode pillion on her son's motorbike.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a seat or place behind the person riding a motorcycle where a passenger can sit: Perched precariously on the pillion, her arms around his waist, she giggled with delight

語源が気になり色々と調べるとWikipediaに次の説明がありました。
A pillion is a secondary pad, cushion, or seat behind the main seat or saddle on a horse, motorcycle, bicycle or moped. A passenger in this seat is said to "ride pillion". The word is derived from the Scottish Gaelic for "little rug", pillean, from the Latin pellis, "animal skin". One or more pelts often were used as a secondary seat on horseback; the usage has carried over to motorcycles.

call of nature

Salman Rushdieの "Midnight's Children" を読んでいます。

On February 10th (when Yahyu, Bhutto and Mujib were refusing to engage in high-level talks), the buddha felt the call of nature. A somewhat concerned Shaheed and a gleeful Farooq loitered by the latrines; while Ayooba, who had used jump-leads to attach the metal footplates of the urinals to the battery of a jeep, stood out of sight behind the latrine hut, beside the jeep, whose motor was running.

"call of nature" で大昔に読んだ、たしか東京オリンピックの数年前で当時ベストセラーになった　「英語に強くなる本」（岩田一男著）に出ていた表現　"nature calls me" を思い出しました。その他の表現は何も覚えていませんが。
英英辞書にこの表現の説明があるか見てみました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: call of nature: Used euphemistically to refer to a need to urinate or defecate.: I did a quick escape at the end to answer a pressing call of nature.

・Collins Dictionary: Some people talk about a call of nature when referring politely to the need to go to the toilet.: I'm afraid I have to answer a call of nature.

生理現象は自然の摂理なのです。

Olympic berth

The Japan Times Online April 5の記事を引用します。
Leukemia survivor Rikako Ikee set for Olympic berth

The 20-year-old has tentatively qualified for the medley relay at the Tokyo Games after winning the women's 100-meter butterfly final at the ongoing national championships.

池江璃花子選手は凄い。白血病で苦しんでいる人達は特に勇気付けられたでしょうね。
"berth" の意味は船の停泊場とか列車なのでの寝台しか知りませんでしたが、ここでは文脈から出場権の意味だと推測できます。辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (often in a sports context) a situation or position in an organization or event.: There are only two Olympic berths in each event.

・Urban Dictionary: An entrance into the playoffs achieved by a sports team who normally possess a winning record.: With one more win this season, the Cleveland Browns will clinch a playoff berth and have a shot at the Super Bowl.

glacially slow

The Japan Times Online March 30の記事 'Worse than a jungle’: The cartel controlling Iraqi borders' のサブタイトルにあった表現を取り上げます。
The network arises from Iraq's glacially slow bureaucracy, fractious politics, limited nonoil industry and endemic corruption.
氷河の動きは年に何センチの単位なので "glacially slow" は非常に遅いことを意味しているのが容易に分かります。辞書にどの様な説明があるか調べて見ます。
いずれの辞書も形容詞の "glacial" の項に次の説明がありました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Extremely slow (like the movement of a glacier): ‘an official described progress in the talks as glacial’

・Collins Dictionary: If you say that something moves or changes at a glacial pace, you are emphasizing that it moves or changes very slowly.: Change occurs at a glacial pace.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: extremely slow: The case is moving forward at a glacial pace.