Ludite holdout

Yuval Noah Harariの "Sapiens" を読んでいます。 'The Luxury Trap' の章から引用します。

Here and there a Luddite holdout refuses to open an email account, just as thousands of years ago some human bands refused to take up farming and so escaped the luxury trap. But the Agricultural Revolution didn't need every band in a given region to join up.

"Luddite holdout" の "Luddite" は固有名詞なので次の辞書しか説明はありませんでした。

・Urban Dictionary: A person who is averse to addapting to technology.: He is a ludite because he does not want to use myspace as a means of communication, in order to manage his relationships--business, or otherwise.

百科事典のWikipediaには詳しい説明がありました。以下はその冒頭の記述です。
The Luddites were a secret oath-based organisation of English textile workers in the 19th century who formed a radical faction which destroyed textile machinery. The group is believed to have taken its name from Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver supposedly from Anstey, near Leicester. They protested against manufacturers who used machines in what they called "a fraudulent and deceitful manner" to get around standard labour practices. Luddites feared that the time spent learning the skills of their craft would go to waste, as machines would replace their role in the industry.

"Luddite" の名前は忘れていますが、イギリスの産業革命時代にこの様な事件があったことを歴史で習ったことは憶えています。
"holdout" は辞書に次の様な説明があります。
・Collins Dictionary: A holdout is someone who refuses to agree or act with other people in a particular situation and by doing so stops the situation from progressing or being resolved.: France has been the holdout in trying to negotiate an end to the dispute.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a person, organization, or country that continues to do something, despite other people trying to force them not to: It's time to shame holdouts into signing the treaty.
これは1年ちょっと前に電車内で見かけた婦人がマスクをしていないで首から大きなカードを下げていて、カードには「睨まれてもマスクはしません」とあったことを思い出しました。

domesticate

Yuval Noah Harariの "Sapiens" を読んでいます。 'History's Biggest Fraud' の章に興味深い記述がありました。

The body of Homo Sapiens had not evolved for such tasks. It was adapted to climbing apple trees and running after gazelles, not to clearing rocks and carrying water buckets. Human spines, knees, necks and arches paid the price. Studies of ancient skeletons indicate that the transition to agriculture brought about a plethora of ailments, such as slipped discs, arthritis and hernias. Moreover, the new agricultural tasks demanded so much time that people were forced to settle permanently next to their wheat fields. This completely changed their way of life. We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us. The word 'domesticate' comes from the Latin domus, which means 'house' Who's the one living in a house? Not the wheat. It's the Sapiens.

人間は多くの動物を家畜化しましたが、一方で植物が人間を食料の採集動物から、植物の栽培人間に変えたとは目から鱗です。　英英辞書には "domesticate" を次の様に説明していました。
・Oxford English Dictionary:
1. to make a wild animal used to living with or working for humans: Mammals were first domesticated for their milk.
2. to grow plants or crops for human use, especially for the first time: be domesticated: Corn was domesticated more than 6000 years ago.
3. domesticate somebody (often humorous) to make somebody good at cooking, caring for a house, etc.; to make somebody enjoy home life: Some men are very hard to domesticate.

tree-hugger

Yuval Noah Harariの "Sapiens" を読んでいます。 'Noah's Ark' の章から引用します。

The First Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the foragers, was followed by the Second Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the farmers, and gives us an important perspective on the Third Wave Extinction, which industrial activity is causing today. Don't believe tree-huggers who claim that our ancestors lived in harmony with nature.

"tree-hugger" は木をハグする人なので、森林伐採などの環境破壊に反対している様な人達を指しているに違いありません。辞書で確認します。

・Collins Dictionary: informal, derogatory; an environmental campaigner; a jocular or pejorative usage: also written tree hugger
・Urban Dictionary: An environmentalist or one who believes trees and all living things should not be cut down or harmed. Someone who works to protect the environment from destruction or pollution.: Suzie's such a tree hugger she chained herself to a redwood to keep the loggers from cutting it down.

hard-pressed

Yuval Noah Harariの "Sapiens" を読んでいます。 'The Flood' の章から引用します。

Following the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens acquired the technology, the organisational skills, and perhaps even the vision necessary to break out of Afro-Asia and settle the Outer World. Their first achievement was the colonisation of Australia some 45,000 years ago. Experts are hard-pressed to explain this feat. In order to reach Australia, humans had to cross a number of sea channels, some more than 60 miles wide, and upon arrival they had to adapt nearly overnight to a completely new ecosystem.

著者はイスラエル人ですが、オックスフォード大学で学んでおり、当然ながら "organisational" や "colonisation" の様にイギリス英語のスペルを使っています。
"hard-pressed" は5/26/2010に取り上げていました。

Do As the Romanians Do

Reader's　Digest 2月号の記事 "Humor in Uniform" からの引用です。

When my Air Force wind deployed to Norway, our first sergeant wanted to make sure we behaved ourselves and blended in with the locals, "You men are representing yourselves, your country and the United States Air Force," he told us. "Remember, when in Rome, do as the Romanians do."

英語が母国語でこんな間違えをする人がいるのですかね？

How Queen Elizabeth died

Reader's　Digest 2月号の記事 "Life in These United States" からの引用です。

My 3-year-old nephew watched much of the funeral procession for Queen Elizabeth, including the 96-gun salute, which featured cannon fire. As impressive as it was, he looked a bit concerned, asking after it was over, "Is that how she died?"

monger

Yuval Noah Harariの "Sapiens" を読んでいます。 'The Tree of Knowledge' の章から引用します。

Do you think that history professors chat about the reasons for World War One when they meet for lunch, or that nuclear physicists spend their coffee breaks at scientific conferences talking about quarks? Sometimes. But more often, they gossip about the professor who caught her husband cheating, or the quarrel between the head of the department and the dean, or the rumours that a colleague used his research funds to buy a Lexus. Gossip usually focused on wrongdoings. Rumour-mongers are the original fourth estate, journalists who inform society about and thus protect it from cheats and freeloaders.

"Rumour-mongers" は "fishmonger" からと、その後に "the original fourth estate, journalists" とあるので凡その意味は分かりますが、"monger" の用法をを辞書で確認します。

・Collins Dictionary: 1. (in combination except in archaic use) a trader or dealer: ironmonger 2. (in combination) a promoter of something unpleasant: warmonger
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a person who encourages a particular activity, especially one that causes trouble: They're nothing but a bunch of war-mongers.
・Vocabulary.com: A monger is a seller, especially of something specific like a fish monger or an iron monger.
You can use the noun monger as a word on its own, although it frequently shows up as a suffix, in words like cheesemonger. Monger can also be used as a verb meaning "to sell or peddle." In both cases, the word is a bit old fashioned, used more often these days to describe a person who promotes something hurtful, as in warmonger. The Old English root word is mangere, "merchant or broker," from the Latin mango, "dealer or trader."

Banana Republic

Yuval Noah Harariの "Sapiens(副題 A Brief History of Humankind) を読み始めました。氏の本は "Homo Deus" と "21 Lessons for the 21 Century" を既に読んだので、これで3冊目、地元の図書館にある氏の作品はこれで全てです。
ちょっと長くなりますが、'An Animal of No Significance' の章から引用します。

That spectacular leap from the middle to the top had enormous consequences. Other animals at the top of the pyramid, such as lions and sharks, evolved into that position very gradually, over millions of years. This enabled the ecosystem to develop checks and balances that prevent lions and sharks from wreaking too much havoc. As lions became deadlier, so gazelles evolved to run faster, hyenas to cooperate better, and rhinoceroses to be more bad-tempered. In contrast, humankind ascended to the top so quickly that the ecosystem was not given time to adjust. Moreover, humans themselves failed to adjust. Most top predators of the planet are majestic creatures. Millions of years of domination have filled them with self-confidence. Sapiens by contrast is more like a banana republic dictator. Having so recently been one of the underdogs of the savannah, we are full of fears and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous. Many historical calamities, from deadly wars to ecological catastrophes, have resulted from this over-hasty jump.

なるほど、人類の問題は環境問題を含め、急速な進歩（？）が原因なのですね。
"banana republic dictator" の "banana republic" 見覚えのある表現で、中南米の国を連想させますが、どんな意味でしょうか？　辞書を見ます。

・Collins Dictionary: a small country, esp in Central America, that is politically unstable and has an economy dominated by foreign interest, usually dependent on one export, such as bananas
・Vocabulary.com: A banana republic is a country with an economy that depends almost entirely on one product and heavily favors a wealthy elite.
The writer O. Henry coined the term banana republic, using it in 1904 to describe a fictional country modeled on Honduras. In real life, U.S.-owned fruit companies had recently introduced Americans to the banana, exploiting the economies of small tropical nations to cash in on the newly popular fruit. These powerful companies essentially controlled Honduras and other countries politically, making them so-called banana republics. Today the term is used more broadly, for despotic nations with limited resources.

"banana republic" はO. Henryの造語とは知りませんでした。

parlay

Reader's　Digest 2月号の記事 "Raising the Stakes on Sports Betting" からの引用です。

Also often too good to be true are "parlay" bets, which combine several results into one wager. Payouts go way up--but so do your odds of losing. For every $100 wagered on single bets, sportsbooks keep about $5 and return the other $95. But on parlays, they keep about $32. Dreaming big, losing small--that's what you do when you try to guess at 16 NFL games to turn $10 into $300K.

"parlay" の意味を調べます。

・Collins Dictionary: to stake (winnings from one bet) on a subsequent wager Brit equivalent: double up: She'd hoped to parlay her $500 payment for the article on dressmakers into a $1,000 fee for future work.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to use or develop money, skills, etc. in a way that makes more money or leads to success: They parlayed a small inheritance into a vast fortune.
・Vocabulary.com: If you parlay a bet, then you take the winnings from one bet and bet it again on something else. You might have seen a gambler on TV parlay her winnings into a huge fortune.
The verb parlay is often used to talk about gambling, but it can be used more broadly to describe any initial stake that you turn into something much larger. You might parlay your early investment in your brother’s company into a high-paying leadership role. Parlay also has a noun form that describes these kinds of transactions. You might notice your Uncle Bob once again betting a baseball parlay.

baker's dozen

Reader's　Digest 2月号の記事 "We Found a FIX HELP, HACKS & HOW TO" からの引用です。
When buying rosesthis Valentine's Day, make it a baker's dozen and keep one bloom for yourself.
Flowers of the same type that are cut at the same time and kept in similar environments mature similarly. So when your flower begins to wilt, you'll know it's time to buy your beloved a new bouguet. Neither your gesture of love nor the thought behind it should die after Feb.14.

"baker's dozen" の表現は前にも見た覚えがありますが、幾つを示しているのか忘れました。　１２本のバラではない事は確かですが、幾つを意味しているのか分かりません。　辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a group of thirteen (= one more than a dozen, which is twelve), origin This phrase comes from bakers’ old custom of adding one extra loaf to an order of a dozen.
・Vocabulary.com: A baker's dozen is thirteen of something. If your cat has a baker's dozen of kittens, she has thirteen babies.
You can use the term baker's dozen any time you're talking about thirteen items. You might buy a baker's dozen of stuffed animals for your many cousins, or bake a baker's dozen of chocolate chip cookies. In fact, baking is the origin of baker's dozen — since the sixteenth century, the term has been used to talk about the longstanding custom of bakers adding an extra loaf or muffin or bagel to a customer's order of a dozen.