What kind of 'key are you?

今日取り上げるのも "The Book of Tea" 巻末の "Okakura Kakuzo A Biographical Sketch" からですが、単語の話題ではなく、岡倉天心の英語力を含めた才能の高さを示す逸話です。引用文の最初に出てきる "Taikan" とは横山大観の事です。

A favorite anecdote of Taikan's recounts an incident that occurred on one of the promenades through the streets of Boston. They were accosted by a cocky young man who asked: "What sort of 'nese are you people? Are you Chinese, or Japanese?" Whereto the quick-witted Tenshin retorted: "We are Japanese gentlemen. But what kind of 'key are you? Are you a Yankee, or donkey, or a monkey?" In addition to revealing the barbed sharpness of his tongue, this tale attests to Tenshin's facility in thinking and speaking in English.

fiat

今日取り上げる単語は "The Book of Tea" の巻末に書かれていた "Okakura Kakuzo A Biographical Sketch" からの引用です。

On December 26, 1862, a second son was born to Okakura Kanemon, in a merchant family of Yokohama, and named Kakuzo. This was almost ten years after the historical "black ships" of Commodore Perry had forced open the ports of Japan, which for two hundred and fifty years had been tightly shut against the rest of the world. Japan was by no means unanimous in welcoming this intrusion on her national privacy. Bloody uprisings of embattled traditionalists had to be suppressed before the innovators own out and, in 1868, placed upon the throne an emperor who by fiat would turn a medieval country into a modern nation almost overnight.

"fiat" はこのブログを始めた初期の頃に "fiat money" で知った単語で、その直ぐ後に対語の "representative money" を知人から教えてもらったせいで、"fiat money" の意味は覚えられたのですが、もう一つの意味は覚えられずいました。上記引用文に出て来た "fiat" がその意味でした。辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: an official order given by somebody in authority: Prices have been fixed by government fiat.
Word Origin: late Middle English: from Latin, ‘let it be done’, from fieri ‘be done or made’.
・Collins Dictionary: If something is done by fiat, it is done because of an official order given by someone in authority.: He has tried to impose solutions to the country's problems by fiat.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: an order given by a person in authority: No company can set industry standards by fiat.

4/22/2008 に "fiat lux" を取り上げたのも思い出しました。

hoary ages

Okakura Kakuzoの "The Book of Tea" を読んでいます。
今日取り上げる単語は "Art Appreciation" の章からの引用です。

Have you heard the Taoist tale of the Taming of the Harp?
Once in the hoary ages in the Ravine of Lungmen stood a Kiri tree, a veritable king of the forest. It reared its head to talk to the stars; its roots struck deep into the earth, mingling their bronzed coils with those of the silver dragon that slept beneath. And it came to pass that a mighty wizard made of this tree a wondrous harp, whose stubborn spirit should be tamed but by the greatest of musicians. For long the instrument was treasured by the Emperor of China, but all in vain were the efforts of those who in turn tried to draw melody from its strings. In response to their utmost strivings there came from the harp but harsh notes of disdain, ill-according with the songs they fain would sing. The harp refused to recognise a master.

"hoary ages" の "hoary" を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (old-fashioned) very old and well known and therefore no longer interesting: a hoary old joke
・Collins Dictionary: If you describe a problem or subject as hoary, you mean that it is old and familiar.: ...the hoary old myth that increased competition will drive up standards.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: very old and familiar and therefore not interesting or funny: He told a few hoary old jokes and nobody laughed.

tea-caddy

Okakura Kakuzoの "The Book of Tea" を読んでいます。今日取り上げる単語は "The Tea Room" の章からの引用です。

In the tea-room the fear of repetition is a constant presence. The various objects for the decoration of a room should be so selected that no colour or design shall be repeated. If you have a living flower, a painting of flowers is not allowable. If you are using a round kettle, the water pitcher should be angular. A cup with a black glaze should not be associated with a tea-caddy of black lacquer. In placing a vase of an incense burner on the tokonoma, care should be taken not to put it in the exact centre, lest it divide the space into equal halves. The pillar of the tokonoma should be of a different kind of wood from the other pillars, in order to break any suggestion of monotony in the room.

"tea-caddy" でゴルフのキャディさんからの連想でテレビで見たことのあるカラクリ人形のお茶運びを思い起しました。"caddy" の説明を辞書で見ました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (also tea caddy) a small box with a lid (= cover) that you keep tea in
・Collins Dictionary: (British) a small container, esp for tea, (American) a container, rack, or other device for holding, organizing, or storing items: a pencil caddy; a bedspread caddy

ゴルフのキャディは "caddy" とも綴られますが、"caddie" と綴られることの方が多いようです。
(in golf) a person who helps a player during a game by carrying their clubs and equipment, and by giving advice (also caddy)

verdure

Okakura Kakuzoの "The Book of Tea" を読んでいます。 今日も "The Tea Room" の章からの引用です。

Rikiu was watching his son Shoan as he swept and watered the garden path. "Not clean enough," said Rikiu, when Shoan had finished his task, and bade him try again. After a weary hour the son turned to Rikiu: "Father, there is nothing more to be done. The steps have been washed for the third time, the stone lanterns and the trees are well sprinkled with water, moss and lichens are shining with a fresh verdure; not a twig, not a leaf have I left on the ground." "Young fool," chided the tea-master, "that is not the way a garden path should be swept." Saying this, Rikiu stepped into the garden, shook a tree and scattered over the garden gold and crimson leaves, scraps of the brocade of autumn! What Rikiu demanded was not cleanliness alone, but the beautiful and the natural also.

この逸話を読んでいたら、数年前に行った足立美術館の庭園（島根県にあり、世界一の日本庭園と称されている）を思い出しました。かなり広い庭園なのに落ち葉一つない（庭園内には入れません）のが不思議と言うか、本当に絵画の様で、綺麗ですが、むしろ不自然だと思いました。

"verdure" は緑のことだとうろ覚えなので辞書で確認します。

・Collins Dictionary: the fresh-green color of growing things; greenness: Many of the fences that separated each lot from another with trees and verdure were left intact.
・Wiktionary: greenness, especially of fresh, flourishing vegetation.: On the other side was a narrow margin, and then a sheer wall of hills in exquisite verdure.

Merriam-Websterにこんな説明がありました。

Like the more common verdant, the word traces back to Latin virēre, meaning "to be green." Since the early 16th century, verdure has also been used to refer to a kind of tapestry with a design based on plant forms. The verdure that English speakers sometimes encounter on menus is Italian; in that language verdure refers to green vegetables or to vegetables in general (as in "fettuccine con verdure").

私が覚えていたのは "verdure" ではなく "verdant" でした。

edification and edifice

Okakura Kakuzoの "The Book of Tea" を読んでいます。"The Tea Room" の章からの引用です。

The tea room is not only different from any production of Western architecture, but also contrasts strongly with the classical architecture of Japan itself. Our ancient noble edifices, whether secular of ecclesiastical, were not to be despised even as regards their small size.

このしばらく後に次の文章がありました。

We might add here that the altar of the Zen chapel was the prototype of the Tokonoma,--the place of honour in a Japanese room where paintings and flowers are placed for the edification of the guests.

"edifice" と "edification" の意味は違いますが、字面が似ているので語源に共通点があるのではと思い辞書を見てみました。

"edifice": (Oxford English Dictionary) a large impressive building: mid-14c., in religious use, "a building up of the soul,"
(Online Etymologyからの抜粋)via Old French from Latin aedificium, from aedis ‘dwelling’ + facere ‘make’.
"edification": the improvement of somebody’s mind or character: The books were intended for the edification of the masses.
(Online Etymologyからの抜粋)mid-14c., in religious use, "a building up of the soul,"

buildingが共通項ですね。

dewlap

Okakura Kakuzoの "The Book of Tea" を読んでいます。"The Schools of Tea" の章からの引用です。

The "Chaking" consists of three volumes and ten chapters. In this first chapter Luwuh treats of the nature of the tea plant, in the second of the implements for gathering the leaves, in the third of the selection of the leaves. According to him the best quality of the leaves must have "creases like the leather boot of Tartar horsemen, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like a mist rising out of a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like fine earth newly swept by rain."

注: "Chaking" は８世紀の半ばにLuwuhが書いた本(The Holy Scripture of Tea)を指しています。

さて "dewlap of a mighty bullock" の "dewlap" とは何でしょうか、辞書を見ます。

・Collins Dictionary: a loose fold of skin hanging from the throat of cattle and certain other animals, or a similar loose fold under the chin of a person: Males have a large dewlap that extends into the abdominal region.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a fold of loose skin that hangs under the throat of some animals such as some cows or dogs; also used to refer to a similar fold of skin on a person: The bloodhound's long dewlap and floppy ears help to catch the scent as its nose passes over the ground.

a Character, with a capital C

今月から始まる放送大学の2学期の科目として『英語で「道」を語る』を受講することにしました。教科書を読み始めましたが、巻末の出典一覧に興味を引く本が多く載っていました。その内の幾つかの本は地元の図書館にあるのが分かったので出来るだけ多くの本を借りて読むことにします。まず最初の本は岡倉天心の書いた "The Book of Tea" です。借りた本を見ると著者名はOkakura Kakuzoとなっていたので、これは原本ではなく天心の息子/孫が書いた別物かと思い、あわてて調べると、天心の本名は覚三だと分かりました。

今日取り上げる表現は "The Book of Tea" の本文ではなく、Foreword to the 1956 Edition(by Elise Grill)からです。

Now, more than forty years after his death, his memory still remains vivid for his one-time students and collaborators. For them he was a Character, with a capital C, and a genius, at least with a small g.

"a Character, with a capital C" はcharacterを強調する表現に違いありませんが、辞書に説明があるか調べます。

・Merriam-Webster: used with a following capital letter to emphasize or qualify a preceding word: not an accident but murder with a capital M
・TheFree Dictionary: In the most extreme form or degree.: I am hungry with a capital H! Let's eat!
・Collins Dictionary: This phrase adds emphasis to something, and is followed by the first letter in the word.: He's Stupid with a capital S! (He is very stupid.)

どんな言葉でも強調できる便利な表現ですね。

leg-up

The Japan Times Onlineの記事からの引用です。（いつの記事かメモをしませんでしたが9月の中旬の記事です。）

How Intel lost the Sony PlayStation business
A dispute over how much profit Intel stood to take from each chip sold to the electronics giant for the PlayStation 6 gave a leg-up to AMD, which clinched the deal.

7/03/2010 に "leg up"、9/10/2010 に "give a leg up on" を取り上げていましたが、すっかり意味を忘れてました。
辞書には "leg-up" も "give a leg up to" で掲載している辞書は見当たりませんでしたが、ニュースメディアでは "give a leg-up to" の用例は幾つもありました。

Examples of 'give a leg up' in a sentence　(Collins)
Being the host nation offers a unique opportunity to give a leg-up to deserving athletes or a new sport.
Our growing wealth is prompting more of us to ask how we can give a leg-up to those less fortunate than ourselves.
On the bright side, the inheritance often gives a leg-up to grandchildren for their first-time buyer's deposit.

意味は語源を思いだせば浮かんでくる句ですね。

cultivation

高校生の時、古文が大の苦手だったので源氏物語には全く興味がなかったのですが、今年のNHK大河ドラマが「光る源氏」だったので、NHKでは紫式部や源氏物語に関する番組が幾つもありました。源氏物語は英語に翻訳されているのでトライして見る気になったのですが、余りに話が長いのでやはり諦めました。しかし、地元の図書館に "The Tale of Genji, Scenes from the World's First Novel translated by H. Mack Horton" というのがあったのでそれを読むことにしました。
（この投稿は10月2日の "unalloyed" の前にするべきでしたが、抜かしていましたので投稿が前後しました。）
今日取り上げる単語は三帖　空蝉(The Cicada Shell)からです。

Stealing a glance into the room, Genji chanced to see Utsusemi and the Governor of Ki's younger sister, Nokiba no Ogi (Reeds Beneath the Eaves). Utsuseme was not as pretty as the fair Nokiba no Ogi, but Genji found her cultivation and elegance the more attractive.

"cultivation" の意味は "culture" に関係がありそうですね。辞書を見ます。

・Collins Dictionary: development, esp through education, training, etc; culture or sophistication, esp social refinement
・Cambridge English Dictionary: the act of making a special effort to establish and develop a friendship: For the cultivation of friends we need above all time for conversation.
・Wikitionary: Advancement or refinement in physical, intellectual, or moral condition: She is a woman of great cultivation.