Vladimir Nabokovの "Lolita" を読んでいますが、それほど古い小説ではないのに（1955年刊）古い言葉や、難しい単語がやたらに出てきます。更にフランス語など外国語も頻出します。 Nabokovはロシア生まれで、英国やドイツにも住んだ経験があり、その後米国に移り、 "Lolita" を英語で書いています。 難しい単語はどうせ覚えられないので取り上げたくありませんが、今日は見かけは知っていそうな単語でも意味の検討が付かなかった単語 "teleological" を取り上げます。
Now, in perusing what follows, the reader should bear in mind not only the general circuit as adumbrated above, with its many sidetrips and tourist traps, secondary circles and skittish deviations, but also the fact that far from being an indolent partie de plaisir, our tour was a hard, twisted, teleological growth, whose sole raison d’tre (these French clichs are symptomatic) was to keep my companion in passable humor from kiss to kiss.
"teleological" の説明を辞書で見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Dictionary: exhibiting or relating to design or purpose especially in nature: Teleology has the basic meaning of "the study of ends or purposes." A teleologist attempts to understand the purpose of something by looking at its results. A teleological philosopher might argue that we should judge whether an act is good or bad by seeing if it produces a good or bad result, and a teleological explanation of evolutionary changes claims that all such changes occur for a definite purpose.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: involving the belief that everything has a purpose or use: a teleological argument
・Vocabulary.com: Teleological means starting from the end and reasoning back, explaining things based on their end purpose. A teleological statement you've probably heard before is "everything happens for a reason."
"raison d’tre" は日本語でもレゾンデートルと言う事があるのでこれは分かりますが、"partie de plaisir" の方はさっぱりです。 これもフランス語だと思いますが、ご存じの方がいらっしゃれば意味を教えて下さい。
Now, in perusing what follows, the reader should bear in mind not only the general circuit as adumbrated above, with its many sidetrips and tourist traps, secondary circles and skittish deviations, but also the fact that far from being an indolent partie de plaisir, our tour was a hard, twisted, teleological growth, whose sole raison d’tre (these French clichs are symptomatic) was to keep my companion in passable humor from kiss to kiss.
"teleological" の説明を辞書で見ます。
・Merriam-Webster's Dictionary: exhibiting or relating to design or purpose especially in nature: Teleology has the basic meaning of "the study of ends or purposes." A teleologist attempts to understand the purpose of something by looking at its results. A teleological philosopher might argue that we should judge whether an act is good or bad by seeing if it produces a good or bad result, and a teleological explanation of evolutionary changes claims that all such changes occur for a definite purpose.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: involving the belief that everything has a purpose or use: a teleological argument
・Vocabulary.com: Teleological means starting from the end and reasoning back, explaining things based on their end purpose. A teleological statement you've probably heard before is "everything happens for a reason."
"raison d’tre" は日本語でもレゾンデートルと言う事があるのでこれは分かりますが、"partie de plaisir" の方はさっぱりです。 これもフランス語だと思いますが、ご存じの方がいらっしゃれば意味を教えて下さい。
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