nail-biter

The New York TimesのMay 15, 2023の記事の引用です。
Nail-Biter Turkish Election Heads for Round 2 as Majority Eludes Erdogan
After two decades in power, a struggling Recep Tayyip Erdogan has two more weeks to persuade Turkish voters that he should continue as president.

日本人には余りいない様ですが、米国には "Nail-Biter" が結構いるようです。　上記記事のタイトルに出て来た "Nail-Biter" は実際に爪を噛む人を示していないのは明らかです。　辞書で "nail-biter" の説明を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: a situation that makes you feel excited or anxious because you do not know what is going to happen: The final game of the competition was a real nail-biter.
・Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary: something (such as a close contest) that induces tension or anxiety: Remember, both these teams played in nail-biters at the sectional-final level.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a sports event or film that is exciting because you do not know how it will end: Saturday's semifinal was a real nail-biter.

as mad as a hatter

W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読んでいます。 'L' の章から引用します。

He felt himself at home, and he made up his mind there and then, in a miniute, that he would live the rest of his life in Alexandra. He had no great difficulty in leaving the ship, and in twenty-four hours, with all his belongings, he was on shore.
'The Captain must have thought you as mad as a hatter', I smiled.

"as mad as a hatter" は "mad" を強調する表現であることは分かりますが、なんで "a hatter" なのか気になります。

・Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary: If someone is as mad as a hatter, they are crazy. Her sister's as mad as a hatter and if you ask me she's not much better herself. Note: In the 19th century, `hatters' or hat-makers used nitrate of mercury to treat their fabrics. This substance is poisonous, and if the hat-makers breathed it in, they often suffered brain damage. As a result, hatters were traditionally thought of as mad. In Lewis Carroll's children's story `Alice in Wonderland' (1865), one of the characters is a hatter who behaves very strangely. Carroll may have based the character on a well-known Oxford furniture dealer, Theophilus Carter, who was known as the `Mad Hatter'.

何か眉唾の語源ですね。

atavism

先週末は二つもコンサートを聴きに行ったので忙しかった。　初めて行った池袋の東京芸術劇場はモダンなデザインのパイプオルガンが正面にある見事な劇場でした。　コンサートは吹奏楽でパイプオルガンではありませんでしたが、素晴らしい演奏でした。
さて、W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読んでいます。 'XLIX' の章から引用します。

They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scene they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history.

"atavism" の意味を辞書で調べます。

・Collins Dictionary: appearance in an individual of some characteristic found in a remote ancestor but not in nearer ancestors: Atavism can also be seen in humans who possess large teeth, like those of other primates.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a feeling or reaction that comes from long ago in human history, rather than being necessary or appropriate in modern times: There is something disconcerting about the seeming atavism of demonstrators carrying torches.
・Vocabulary.com: Atavism is a return to a previous way of doing, saying, or seeing things. It can be casual, like wearing retro clothing and listening to vinyl records, or committed, like living in a straw hut without electricity.
It makes sense that atavism comes from a Latin word meaning “forefather,” since it refers to a way of doing things like our ancestors did them. It’s often used negatively, though, to refer to behavior the speaker finds primitive or unacceptable. Atavists are often called "throwbacks." In biology, the term atavism or “evolutionary throwback” is used when animals are born with features that had disappeared, such as legs on a whale.

先祖返りと言う感じでしょうか。

spare old man

W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読んでいます。 'XXXVIII' の章から引用します。

I saw a neat little old woman, with cheeks little apples, toiling away from morning to night, through the long years, to keep her house trim and spruce. His father was a spare old man, his hand gnarled after the work of a lifetime, silent and upright; in the evening he read the paper aloud, while his wife and daughter (now married to the captain of a fishing smack), unwilling to lose a moment, bent over their sewing.

"spare old man" の spare の意味を辞書で調べます。

・Collins Dictionary: Someone who is described as spare is tall and not at all fat.: She was thin and spare, with a sharply intelligent face.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: tall and thin: He had the spare build of a runner.
・Vocabulary.com: thin and fit: “the spare figure of a marathon runner”

eat humble pie

W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読んでいます。 'XXVIII' の章から引用します。

'Look here', I said, 'let's go back to your studio. If you've made a fool of youeself you must eat humble pie. Your wife doesn't strike me as the sort of woman to bear malice.'

"eat humble pie" 見覚えのある表現です。　辞書の説明を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: to say and show that you are sorry for a mistake that you made
・Collins Dictionary: to behave or be forced to behave humbly; be humiliated: He had to eat humble pie and publicly admit his error
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to admit that you were wrong: After boasting that his company could outperform the industry's best, he's been forced to eat humble pie.

こんなパイは食べたくないですね。

give a little start

W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読んでいます。 'XXVII' の章から引用します。

He gave a little start, and then smiled, but his smile was rueful.
...
'Shall I get rid of Strickland for you?' I asked.
He gave a little start, and his shinning face grew very red.
'No, You'd better not do anything.'

"gave a little start" の意味を "give a start" で辞書に載っているか調べました。

・TheFree Dictionary: To startle or frighten one.: That loud noise sure gave us all a start.
・Macmillan Dictionary: a sudden movement that you make because you are surprised or afraid: She gave a nervous start as the door suddenly opened.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to move suddenly and quickly from surprise or fright : to jump: She gave a start when he tapped her on the shoulder.

驚いてびくっとした様子です。

privation

W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読んでいます。 'XXI' と 'XXVIII' の章から引用します。

I learned that for six months he had lived on a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk a day. He was a sensual man, and yet was indifferent to sensual things. He looked upon privation as no hardship. There was something impressive in the manner in which he lived a life wholly of the spirit.
...
'You'll suffer the most awful privations. You know why he took so long to get well. He was half starved.'

２番目に出て来た個所まで読むと "privations" は食べる物が無く、困る状態だと推測できます。辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a lack of the basic things that people need for living: They endured years of suffering and privation.
・Collins Dictionary: If you suffer privation or privations, you have to live without many of the things that are thought to be necessary in life, such as food, clothing, or comfort.: They endured five years of privation during the Second World War.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a lack of the basic things that are necessary for an acceptable standard of living: Economic privation is pushing the poor towards crime.

欠乏しているのは食料だけではありませんでした。

slings and arrows / row of pins

W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読んでいます。 'XIV' の章から引用します。

No one runs so hurriedly to the cover of respectability as the unconventional woman who has exposed herself to the slings and arrows of outraged propriety. I do not believe the people who tell me they do not care a row of pins for the opinion of their fellows.

今日は上記引用文から慣用句的な二つの表現を取り上げます。　最初は "slings and arrows" を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Unpleasant or difficult hardships.: We've had our share of slings and arrows, but we've managed to build ourselves up into a stable business.
・Collins COBUILD Idiom Dictionary: Slings and arrows are bad things that happen to you and that are not your fault. She seemed generally unable to cope with the slings and arrows of life. He endured the usual slings and arrows of a life lived in the media spotlight. Note: This expression comes from the line the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, in Shakespeare's play `Hamlet'.

ハムレットのセリフからですか、何か聞き覚えがある思いました。 学生の頃 "To be or not to be..." のセリフを暗唱させられました（昔の理工系の英語はこれで単位が取れたいい加減な内容）が、意味はすっかり忘れていました。
次に "row of pins" を調べます。

・Wiktionary: (idiomatic, dated, chiefly in the negative) An insignificant thing, a whit.: As far as the admissions tax is concerned, it doesn’t amount to a row of pins anyway.

これも古い表現なので他の辞書には載っていませんでした。

blackguard

W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読んでいます。

物語の語り手はMrs. Stricklandsから、失踪してパリに行ったの夫に会いに行って欲しいと頼まれました。　'VIII' の章から引用します。

'I dare say you'd like me to go', I said to the Colonel, getting up.
'I suppose you've heard that blackguard has deserted her', he cried explosively.
I hesitated.

ColonelはMrs. Stricklandsのbrother-in-lawです。 "blackguard" は失踪した、Mrs. Stricklandsの夫の事をさしていますが、意味を辞書で見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (old-fashioned, British English) ​a man who is dishonest and has no sense of what is right and what is wrong
・Vocabulary.com: In movies, TV shows, and other forms of entertainment, there are often good guys and bad guys. A blackguard is a bad guy. Blackguards are up to no good.
Originally, a blackguard was a type of servant dressed in black, but the meaning evolved to mean a person who is villainous at heart. This is definitely an old-fashioned word you're most likely to see in an older story or play. A blackguard likely won't be guarding anything, but they probably will be doing something evil.

前者の辞書では古語とされていて、戦後から使用頻度が減って来たようですが、後者の辞書の説明にあるようにテレビやドラマではよく使われている言葉の様です。

lions of literary

W. Somerset Maughamの "The Moon and Sixpence" を読み始めました。　III章から引用します。

They are like cells in the body, essential, but, so long as they remain healthy, engulfed in the momentous whole. The Stricklands were an avarage family in the middle class. A pleasant, hospitable woman, with a harmless craze for the small lions of literary society; a rather dull man, doing his duty in that state of life in which a merciful Province had placed him; two nice looking, healthy children.

"lions of literary society" の "lions" は比喩的な響きがありますが、ライオンと言うとどうしても "a courageous, strong, or bellicose person" の方のイメージが先行してしまいます。　辞書の説明を見ます。

・Collins Dictionary: a person of great importance, influence, charm, etc., who is much admired as a celebrity: a literary lion
・Vocabulary.com: a celebrity who is lionized (much sought after) synonyms:social lion

後者の辞書の説明で "lionized" を以前（5/28/2021）取り上げた事を思い出しました。