apropos

Kanae Minatoの小説 "Penance" を読んでいます。

At first my mother acted sulky, serving up the sukiyaki without a word, but when Wakaba told her "Thank you!" with a cute smile when Mother broke a raw egg into her bowl for her, Mother finally smiled herself and made sure the little girl got plenty of meat to eat. When he saw this, my father said, apropos of nothing, "I can break an egg with one hand, you know," breaking an egg into a bowl. What Father saw how happy this made Wakaba, he told me to go out to the mini-mart and buy some ice cream for her.

"apropos" の意味を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: in connection with or related to somebody/something：Apropos (of) what you were just saying…
・Collins Dictionary: Something which is apropos, or apropos of, a subject or event, is connected with it or relevant to it.: All my suggestions apropos the script were accepted.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: used to introduce something that is related to or connected with something that has just been said: Apropos what you said yesterday, I think you made the right decision.
丁寧な説明のある（ない場合もありますが）Vocabulary.comの説明も見ます。
Apropos means regarding or appropriate to, as in: Apropos of your interest in fishing, your grandfather gave you his set of championship lures, rods, reels and lucky tackle box.
Apropos is a useful word to learn. But first you have to know how to pronounce it: AP-rə-pō. Then you can conveniently change the subject of a conversation by using the expression "Apropos of nothing," which is a glib way of saying, "Oh, and by the way..." If someone's remarks are suitable and appropriate to the occasion, you can get on their good side by saying: How apropos!

crony

Kanae Minatoの小説 "Penance" を読んでいます。

I was sitting with my mother and a neighbor woman who'd come over and listened in on what she said, just as if I were one of their cronies. In a know-it-all tone the woman reviewed the rumors about Haruka, sounding, though, as if she couldn't believe that Haruka had turned out that way.

"cronies" は１０年以上前（10/11/2011）に取り上げた "cronyism" と関係がある単語に違いありません。
原形は "crony" と思うので、 "crony" を辞書で見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a person that somebody spends a lot of time with: He was playing cards with his cronies.
・Collins Dictionary: You can refer to friends that someone spends a lot of time with as their cronies, especially when you disapprove of them.: He played a round of golf with his business cronies.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a friend, or a person who works for someone in authority, especially one who is willing to give and receive dishonest help: The general and his cronies are now awaiting trial for drug smuggling.

仲間、友人の意味でもあるが、取り巻きとか縁故主義（"cronyism"）の親類縁者の様にネガティブな意味合いを含んでいる様ですね。その辺の関係を次の辞書は詳しく説明しています。

・Vocabulary.com: A crony (rhymes with “pony”) is a buddy, a close confidant you spend time with and trust. Your boss might make everyone at work angry if she keeps only giving raises to her cronies.
While a crony is basically just a good pal or sidekick, the word sometimes has a negative connotation — that you and your crony are up to no good together. It also implies the idea of cronyism, or unfairly giving friends jobs or promotions they're not qualified for. Crony capitalism refers to doing that in an economic way, like people in government giving tax breaks to their friends. Crony is 17th century British student slang, from the Greek khronios, "long-lasting."

lash out

Kanae Minatoの小説 "Penance" を読み始めました。

The children weren't lying. Mr. Tanabe really was hiding. I can't understand it--a male teacher like him, abandoning his kids to hide by himself. Because of his actions Mr. Tanabe became known all over Japan as a weak, cowardly teacher.
...
When you heard about a suspicious character breaking into school grounds, didn't you picture yourself taking quick-witted action and driving the person away?
Didn't you lash out, asking what this incompetent teacher thought he was doing, because you were so positive that you would have reacted differently?

"lash out" の "lash" は以前（10/10/2012）"lashing with the "cat"" で取り上げた際に、鞭を打つ意味があると知りましたが。上記引用文ではそのような暴力ではありません。 辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: to criticize somebody in an angry way: In a bitter article he lashed out at his critics.
・Collins Dictionary: If you lash out at someone or something, you speak to them or about them very angrily or critically.: As a politician Jefferson frequently lashed out at the press.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to suddenly attack someone or something physically or criticize him, her, or it in an angry way: Why's Tina in such a bad mood? She really lashed out at me when I was late for work.
・Vocabulary.com: When you lash out at someone, you express your anger by saying or writing furious words about them. A writer whose book has been harshly criticized might lash out at the critic.
A politician might lash out at her opponent in a speech, and a journalist might lash out at polluting companies by writing an opinion piece for a newspaper. You can also lash out in a physical way, by kicking or hitting someone in anger — this is the phrase's original meaning, from the verb lash, "to whip."

"lash out" は怒鳴り散らすような暴言ですね。　最後に引用した辞書にある様に力による攻撃でも "lash out" は使われるのですね。
・Oxford English Dictionary: to suddenly try to hit somebody/something: She suddenly lashed out at the boy.
・Collins Dictionary: If you lash out, you attempt to hit someone quickly and violently with a weapon or with your hands or feet.: Riot police fired in the air and lashed out with clubs to disperse hundreds of demonstrators.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to suddenly attack someone or something physically or criticize him, her, or it in an angry way: I was only teasing him and suddenly he lashed out (at me) and hit me in the face.

"lash out" する様な人はたいていろくな人間ではないと思いますが...

schmaltz

Reader's　Digest 11月号のWORD POWER(単語クイズ)はYiddishから英語になった単語の問題でした。
Don't get all verklempt, but this issue we're celebrating the many expressive words English has borrowed from Yiddish. So have some chutzpah and go for it, but skip the schmaltz.

問題はいつもの通り１５問あり、いつもはだいたい１０問前後は正解できるのですが、今回は分かったのは "schmooze"(=chat) だけでした。
上記の問題前の文にも三つのYiddish単語が出てきています。　"chutzpah" と "schmaltz" は何度か見かけた単語ですが、"verklempt" (overcome with emotion: choked up) は初めて見ます。　とりあえず、 "schmaltz" だけは今回覚えたいと思います。

・Oxford English Dictionary: the fact of being too sentimental: At the end of the movie we drown in a sea of schmaltz.
・Collins Dictionary: If you describe a play, film, or book as schmaltz, you do not like it because it is too sentimental.[disapproval] Here, he crafts a vibrant film that will please lovers of honest schmaltz and cause no pain to anyone forced to watch with them.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: artistic works, such as music or writing, that are intended to cause strong sad or romantic feelings but have no real artistic value: Her second album was pure schmaltz.
・Vocabulary.com: Schmaltz is way too much sappiness or sentimentality. A movie soundtrack that's dripping with emotion is full of schmaltz.
If a piece of music or a work of art goes overboard trying to make you feel sad or nostalgic, it's indulging in schmaltz. Love scenes in movies are too often guilty of schmaltz as well. Since the mid-1930s, the Yiddish word schmaltz has been used this way, although its original meaning is "rendered chicken fat," or "melted fat," first spelled shmalts. It comes from the Old High German smalz, "animal fat."

pull a prank

Reader's　Digest 11月号、Prank募集の記事からの引用します。

The Best Prank You Ever Pulled

Calling all clowns, comedians, rascals, jesters and jokers! Have you ever pulled a prank so preposterous that all involved couldn't help but pat you on the back? Alternatively, have you ever been the one pleasantly punk'd? They say the true evidence of a great sense of humor is the ability to take a joke, not make one--but we'll take either.

"pull" のような簡単な動詞にこの様な用法があるのは知りませんでしたので、辞書にこのような用例があるか調べました。

・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To carry out a trick, deception, or practical joke (against someone).: I've got a great plan to pull a prank on the school for April Fools' Day.
・Merrium Webster: pull: COMMIT, PERPETRATE: pull a prank
・YourDictionary.com: Be nice, don't pull any pranks that will hurt anyone's feelings.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to perform an action that is dishonest or intended to deceive: Why would you try to pull a trick/prank like that on her?

meniscus

Reader's　Digest 11月号の記事 "How I Tried to STOP SNORING" からの引用です。

It has been a tough year. A friend passed away suddenly and tragically. Then my grandmother followed. My chronic knee problems turned into a fullblown meniscus tear, dashing any hopes of a late-life bloom into a guy who is "surprisingly athletic" and revealing a body that is eroding with time.

"meniscus" は膝の故障なので半月板を指しているようですが、辞書を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: a crescent-shaped fibrous cartilage between the bones at certain joints, esp at the knee: However, he was unable to fight because of a torn meniscus.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a curved piece of cartilage inside a joint (= place where two bones are connected) of the body such as the knee: A bad move shattered the meniscus and the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

"meniscus" は膝の半月板以外の意味もあるので注意。
・Vocabulary.com: The next time you pour some fluid into a tube, look at it from the side. You will see the liquid has a slight curve, either up or down. This curved surface, created by air pressure, is called a meniscus.
The Greeks had a word for the lunar crescent, mēniskos, which itself came from the word for the moon, mḗnē. In the late 17th Century, the word meniscus was given to similarly-curved lenses. Then in 1812, the curved surfaces of liquid were referred to by this word as well. Later, the name was also applied to a crescent-shaped cartilage at the knee, between the tibia and the femur. These small, semi-lunar bits are important for reducing friction during leg movement.
実は私も１０月に膝を痛めて走ることができなくなり、１０月と１１月の三つのレースを棄権しました。ランニングを始めて１６年目ですが、レースを棄権したのは今年が初めてです。医者によると間接の骨と骨の間が狭くなっている、歳のせいだと言われました。MRIの無い医者なのでレントゲンだけでの診断で "meniscus" も損傷しているかどうかは不明です。

P.S.　膝の痛みが減ったのでランニングの練習を再開したら痛みが再発し、自転車も乗れない程になったので、医者に診てもらったら、膝に血が溜まっていました。痛みが完全になくなるまでランニングは控えることにしました。

fake it

Reader's　Digest 11月号の記事 "Adventures in Babysitting" からの引用です。

Fake It to Make It
I was 12 years old and doing a lot of babysitting. Once, I was left in charge of four kids. I asked them all their names and ages. Imagine my surprise to learn the first born was a year older than me. I was tall for my age and she was short, so I didn't tell them I was actually their "big" sister's junior.

米国では幼い子を家において親が外出することを禁止しているので、若い女性（たいてい女子中高生）にベイビーシッターを依頼するのが当たり前です。　記事の表題にある "Fake It" はいわゆるフェイクニュースの "fake" とはニュアンスが違うようなので、辞書で確認します。
・Merrium-Webster: to pretend to be something that one is not or to have some knowledge or ability that one does not really have: He acts like he's my friend, but I can tell that he's just faking it.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To act as though one is knowledgeable or competent in some area.: A: "I'm panicking and can't remember any of the steps to the dance routine!" B: "Then just get in the back and fake it!"
・Wiktionary: To pretend to be capable or competent.: He told me that he was experienced, but I could tell instantly that he was faking it.
最後に引用した辞書には "fake it till one makes it" という表現もある事が分かりました。
・Wiktionary: (psychology) To pretend to be a certain way until one becomes that way.
"Fake It" の表現は "fake it till one makes it" を基にしたのでしょう。

Chapter 11

Reader's　Digest 11月号の記事 "Laughter The Best Medicine" からの引用です。
I've been trying to finish writing a book about surviving bankruptcy, but I can't get out of chapter 11.

クスリと笑えますね。 "chapter 11" については辞書にも説明があります。

・Collins Dictionary: US: the statute regarding the reorganization of a failing business empowering a court to allow the debtors to remain in control of the business to attempt to save it: they are in chapter 11

mycelium / mycelia

Reader's　Digest 11月号の記事 "Fascinating Fungi" からの引用です。

Underground, mushrooms branch into networks of rootlike mycelium, which help break down waste, adding vital nutrients back into the soil. This network also shares information (such as warning trees about insect infestation), communicating via electric as pulses in intricate patterns. Some mycologists refer to this as the natural internet or the "wood wide web."

数ヶ月前にNHKのBS番組でキノコの菌糸が森のネットワークになっているというドキュメンタリーを見たので、上記の記事の内容はよく分かります。ただし、英語の "mycelium" は知らなかったので今回覚えたいと思います。
・Collins Dictionary: (in mycology) the mass of hyphae that form the vegetative part of a fungus: the vegetative body of fungi: a mass of branching filaments (hyphae) that spread throughout the nutrient substratum
・Dictionary.com: Plural mycelia: The mass of fine branching tubes (known as hyphae) that forms the main growing structure of a fungus. Visible structures like mushrooms are reproductive structures produced by the mycelium.: Almost all the plants in the world share resources through a network of mycelia.

"wood wide web" も分かり易い表現です。

infraction

Reader's　Digest 11月号の記事 "All in a Day's Work" からの引用です。
If you have a small bladder, don't think about taking a job with Anpu Electric Science and Technology. The Chinese company has a once-a-day toilet break policy. Need to pee again? You'll be labeled a slacker and fined 20 yuan (about $3) for every infraction.

"infraction" を辞書で調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: an act of breaking a rule or law: minor infractions of EU regulations
・Collins Dictionary: An infraction of a rule or law is an instance of breaking it.: ...an infraction of school rules.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: an occasion when someone breaks a rule or law: infraction of Any attempt to influence the judges will be seen as an infraction of the rules.
なるほど、軽い規則違反ですね。　次の辞書は規則違反の種類について説明しています。
・Vocabulary.com: When you break school rules about gum chewing, you commit an infraction. An infraction is a petty crime or a minor breaking of rules.
When you think of the word infraction, think that your offence has just crossed the line into wrong. Something like a parking ticket is an infraction. When you commit an infraction, you're not knee deep in wrong, you've just dipped your toe into wrong to see what it feels like. A misdemeanor is a more serious crime such as theft, and murder is considered a felony, the most serious of crimes.

私もこの中国の会社では勤まりません。