late bloomer

伊坂幸太郎氏の小説 "Remote Control" を読んでいます。パート4，The Incidentから引用します。

"Well, then," Morita said, leaning forward, "how about that Rinka. Did you do it with her?" His tone was neutral but the intentness in his look make Aoyagi wince.
"Are you serious?"
"But you were her knight in shining armor, you came to her rescue. Didn't she owe you something? I'm sure you got friendly. So, did you do it?" This was the same old Morita, getting all worked up at the mention of a woman and wanting to know everything in detail. In reality, though, he had been something of a late bloomer himself; shy as anything when left alone with a girl, usually not even getting around to holding hands by the end of a date.

"late bloomer" を辞書で見ます。
・Wiktionary: A person who achieves proficiency or success in a field significantly later in life.: He was a late bloomer, finding success at 40 in Luc Besson's 1988 film The Big Blue.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: Someone who develops their talents or capabilities later than is typical among their peers.: It took my brother until he was 35, but he finally found a stable career that he loves. I guess he was just a late bloomer.

"late bloomer" は米国英語で英国英語では "late developer" を使うとありました。
・Collins Dictionary: someone, esp a teenager, who matures physically or emotionally at an older age than considered usual: he was labelled as 'a late developer' at his school.

Armed officer

"gun-toting" は 前回Blogで紹介したように辞書の説明では面白い事に、特に悪人、あるいは犯罪を起こす目的で所持している場合に使用されるとあります。では善人が所持している場合の表現はあるのか気になったのでChatGPTに訊いてみました。

While there isn't a commonly recognized, single-word equivalent to "gun-toting" that specifically refers to a police officer carrying a gun, there are some neutral or professional expressions used to describe armed officers. These include:

Armed officer – A straightforward and neutral way to describe a police officer carrying a firearm.
Gun-carrying officer – Another neutral alternative, emphasizing the carrying of a gun.
Weapon-bearing officer – A slightly more formal expression.
Firearm-equipped officer – Focuses on the equipment aspect without connotations.
Gun-bearing officer – Echoes the structure of "gun-toting" but avoids its informal or negative connotations.
If you're looking for something more colloquial or informal, there's no widely recognized term as succinct or evocative as "gun-toting." You could coin a phrase like "gun-packing cop," which carries a casual tone, though it might not suit all contexts.

日本では普通の人がピストルを携帯していることは考えられませんが、もし携帯していたら間違いなく "gun-toting" personですね。

gun-toting

伊坂幸太郎氏の小説 "Remote Control" を読んでいます。パート２，The Audienceから引用します。

At one point, some monthly rag ran a picture with the headline "Cop Confronts Cutter." The grainy image was straight out of a comic book: a gun-toting officer chasing a grim-faced middle-aged man in a suit. The caption was corny enough: "Wounded Cutter, escaping by the skin of his teeth, vows revenge. Killer remains at large in Sendai."

"gun-toting" は文脈から、ガンを携帯していると推測できます。　辞書で確認します。

・Collins Dictionary: (of a person, esp a criminal) carrying a gun: The truck was soon stopped by gun-toting rebels.
・Merriam-Webster: the carrying and use of a gun usually for criminal purposes: stiffer punishment for gun toting

ガンを携帯しているのはあっていますが、特にcriminal person/purposesとあるのが気になります。日本でピストルを携帯している人には常に "gun-toting" が使えるでしょうが、米国では自己防衛の為に所持している場合もあるので、そう言う人には "gun-toting" は使えませんね。では善人が所持している場合に使う表現があるのでしょうか？　気になります。

tickertape

伊坂幸太郎氏の小説 "Remote Control" を読み始めました。作家名も題名も見聞きしたことがないので調べると、原作のタイトルは「ゴールデンスランバー」でした。スランバーは英語の "slumber" から来ていると推測しますがが、これが何故翻訳者は "Remote Control" としたのか気になるところです。The Beginingの章から引用します。

"There he is" murmured one of the customers behind Haruko. A car passed slowly from left to right across the screen. For a moment she thought it was snowing, but then realized they were throwing tickertape from the building along the route.

"tickertape" は初めて見る単語ですが、首相になったKanadaの初めての仙台での凱旋パレードの場面で、前に "it was snowing" とあるので紙吹雪だと分かります。辞書の説明を見ます。"tickertape" は普通は "ticker tape" と二語とするとありました。

・Merriam-Webster: the paper ribbon on which a telegraphic ticker prints off its information: To celebrate, the city put on a traditional ticker tape parade—the first time a local women’s sports team was so honored, according to the Bergen Record.
・Collins Dictionary: Ticker tape consists of long narrow strips of paper on which information such as stock exchange prices is printed by a machine. In American cities, people sometimes throw ticker tape from high windows as a way of celebrating and honouring someone in public.: A half million people watched the troops march in New York's ticker tape parade.
・Vocabulary.com: a continuous thin ribbon of paper on which stock quotes are written: Across the river in Manhattan, on Wall Street and Park Avenue, Delancey Street and Broadway, people danced under showers of computer cards and ticker tape.

これは紙吹雪ではなく紙テープですね。紙吹雪に使う英語は "confetti" ではないでしょうか？　若い人は知らないでしょうが、私が入社した頃はTelex/Teletype1(通信端末）で紙テープ（つまり "ticker tape"）に文面を穿孔し、確認してから発信するのに使用していました。現在のPCではメモリーがその役目を果たしていますね。

brawn

今日の単語も山中伸弥先生とのインタビュー記事から引用します。

However, it will take more than just a year or two for the iPS cell technology to be used directly in patients. It will take 10 to 20 years to reach that stage. My mission is to keep going until this technology is available to patients, in the same way as I run a marathon. A marathon uses a lot of brawn, but it also uses a lot of brain power, and it would be meaningless to me and CiRA if I fell suddenly after one year of trying.

山中先生は若い頃柔道とラグビーをしていて、骨折した経験が何度もあるそうです。そして今でもマラソンを走っているそうです。マラソンは非常に体力を使いますが、"brawn" の意味を辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: physical strength: In this job you need brains as well as brawn.
・Collins Dictionary: Brawn is physical strength.: He's got plenty of brains as well as brawn.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: physical strength and big muscles: She said she preferred brawn to brains (= a person who is physically attractive rather than an intelligent one).
・Vocabulary.com: Brawn means muscular strength. Brawn is thought of as the opposite of brains, but let’s face it — people can be strong and smart! No matter how smart you are, though, you must have big muscles to have brawn.
The word brawn is from the Old French word braon, which means “fleshy or muscular part,” referring to a part of an animal that people cook and eat. British English still uses brawn to mean meat, headcheese in particular. In American English, brawn refers to strength and heft. You may also have heard the adjective brawny, meaning strong and muscular.

"brawn" はbrainsに対する、体力の内の筋力を示しているのですね。

odd drink or two

MIDORI Shinyaさんによる山中伸弥先生とのインタビュー記事から引用します。

-- And you drink alcohol too?
I don' mind the odd drink or two. I try to regulate my intake, though.

"odd drink or two" の "odd" は１～２杯程度と言ったところでしょうか。辞書で "odd" の項を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: approximately or a little more than the number mentioned: How old is she—seventy odd?
・Vocabulary.com: an indefinite quantity more than that specified: “invited 30-odd guests”

in a nod to the iPod

山中伸弥先生の半生記 "Discovering iPS Cells" を読んでいます。They Don't Believe Me! の章から引用します。 iPSの命名についての個所です。

I gave the name "induced pluripotent stem cells" to these new cells with proliferative capability and pluripotency similar to that of ES cells; iPS cells for short. I lowercased the first letter in a nod to the iPod, the portable digital music player that was very popular at the time. I wanted to make it as easy as possible to remember the name, given my bitter experience with other genes that I had discovered and named (NAT1 and ECAT4), but whose names were no longer used.

"in a nod to the iPod" の箇所ですが、"nod" を辞書で見ると次の説明があります。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a (passing) nod to something: something that you do or say to acknowledge the importance or influence of: The house is white, in a passing nod to Greek tradition.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to move the head down and then up again quickly, esp. to show agreement, approval, or greeting: The teacher nodded (his head) in agreement.

山中先生はiPodの愛好者でiPodに敬意を示す意味で "induced pluripotent stem cells" の通称を "iPS" としたのでしょうね。米国滞在中にプリゼンテーションについても勉強したと書かれていたのでその成果を発揮している証拠ですね。

under the fold

昨日取り上げた "the articles appeared under the fold" の意味をChatGPTで確認しました。

The phrase "the articles appeared under the fold" refers to the placement of news articles in a newspaper.

In traditional print newspapers, “above the fold” means the top half of the front page—the part visible when the newspaper is folded in half. Articles in this position are more prominent and likely to be noticed by readers. In contrast, “under the fold” refers to the lower half of the front page, which is only visible once the newspaper is fully opened. Articles placed under the fold are considered less prominent.

In Shinya Yamanaka's context, this means that while he expected his research paper to be featured as a major headline on the front page, it was placed in a less noticeable position below the fold, likely due to the news coverage of the terrorist attacks in London taking precedence.

分かり易い説明ですね。

the articles appeared under the fold

山中伸弥先生の半生記 "Discovering iPS Cells" を読んでいます。 A Shadow Cast by the Fabrication Scandalの章から引用します。

We also needed to prevent the results from leaking out before the paper was published. Our method was so easy that anyone could just copy it once the information leaked. We had previously held weekly seminars in which all members of the lab took turns presenting results in front of other members, but after the results of the iPS cell project came out, we canceled them. Apart from Takahashi, there were only two other people in whom I could confide about iPS cells: Assistant Professor Nakagawa and our postdoc Okita Keisuke. Our paper was published in Cell in August 2006 (reference 6). I was confident that the results would merit front page news, but the articles appeared under the fold because of the terrorist attacks in London.

引用文最後の文中の "merit front page news, but the articles appeared under the fold" の表現の内、前半の "merit front page news" は表紙のページにふさわしいの意味でしょうが後半の "appeared under the fold"
の意味が分かりません。辞書で "fold" を見ると次の説明がありました。

・Oxford English Dictionary: in/not in a position where you see it first, for example in the top/bottom part of a newspaper page or web page: Your ad will be placed above the fold for prominent exposure.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a line or mark where paper, cloth, etc. was or is folded: Make a fold across the centre of the card.

Oxford English Dictionaryの説明に出ている意味、新聞の下段の掲載になったとの解釈で良さそうです。気になるので明日ChatGPTで確認します。

hoodwink

山中伸弥先生の半生記 "Discovering iPS Cells" を読んでいます。My Visionの章から引用します。

In April 2000, the opportunity arrived to promote my laboratory to the new students, and I spoke eloquently about my vision. However, I did not say anything negative such as "it will take decades to realize this vision." I enthusiastically described what a wonderful achievement it would be if we could only pull it off. In the end, three students surprisingly opted to join my laboratory (maybe I hoodwinked them, I don't know): Takahashi Kazutoshi, Tokuzawa Yoshimi, and Kaiho Eiko.

"hoodwink" を辞書で見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: to trick somebody: She had been hoodwinked into buying a worthless necklace.
・Collins Dictionary: If someone hoodwinks you, they trick or deceive you.: Many people are hoodwinked by the so-called beauty industry.
・Vocabulary.com: To hoodwink someone means to trick or mislead them. Beware of fake ATMs that try to hoodwink you into giving over your bank card and your code, only to keep them both and steal all your money.
An excellent, old-fashioned word is hoodwink, and you’ll be happy you know it when you have to read Victorian novels in which characters are repeatedly hoodwinked. It is an Old English compound which meant "to blindfold" 600 years ago but quickly began to be used figuratively. Think about the expression, to pull the wool over someone's eyes, as having the same image and meaning. Has your big sister ever hoodwinked you into doing her chores for her?