blindside

The Japan Times Dec. 12の記事から引用します。

Investors rush to update yen playbook after Bank of Japan’s surprise shift
The yen surged 4.8% on Tuesday after the BOJ blindsided the market by raising its cap on 10-year bond yields to 0.5% from 0.25%.

ラグビーでスクラムを組む際、スクラムの位置が中心近くではなく左右のいずれかのサイドに片寄っている場合に敵も味方もバックスが少ない側をブラインドサイドと呼んでいますが、上の記事の "blindsided" は何でしょうか？

・Collins Dictionary: If you say that you were blindsided by something, you mean that it surprised you in a negative way.: He complained about being blindsided by the decision.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to surprise someone, usually with harmful results: The recession blindsided a lot of lawyers who had previously taken for granted their comfortable income.

ラグビーでもブラインドサイドを攻めるのは意表をつく意図がありますね。

scuff

Yoko Ogawaの "the memory police" を読んでいます。

I looked around at the objects in the room and then tucked my hair behind my ears. R let go of my arm and leg, and I scuffed my foot in and out of my slipper. The traces of his fingers on my ankle and calf vanished almost immediately as they reverted to their plaster state.

"scuff" だと足を引きずって歩く意味があることは知っていますが、ここでは歩いていないので、辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: scuff your feet, heels, etc. to drag your feet along the ground as you walk
・Collins Dictionary: If you scuff your feet, you pull them along the ground as you walk.: Polly, bewildered and embarrassed, dropped her head and scuffed her feet.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: If you scuff your feet, you do not lift them as you walk.

やはり、普通は足を地面から離さないで歩くことですが、小説の場面では単に足をこする様に動かしているのでしょうね。

steep

Yoko Ogawaの "the memory police" を読んでいます。

"That's good," said the old man as he lifted the lid on the pot to see whether the tea had finished steeping.
We chatted about this and that as we sipped our our tea, laughed at Don's antics, and slowly ate the pancakes.

"steeping" は文脈からしてお茶をお湯に浸す意味のはずですが、"steep" の意味として急勾配しか覚えていないので辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: If you steep food in a liquid or leave it to steep, you put it in the liquid and leave it for some time so that it becomes soft and takes in the taste of the liquid: Black teas need to steep for three minutes.
・Collins Dictionary: To steep food in a liquid means to put the food in the liquid for some time so that the food gets flavour from the liquid.: It's a drink made by steeping pineapple rind in water.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to cause to stay in a liquid, especially in order to become soft or clean, or to improve flavour: We had pears steeped in red wine for dessert.

pill

森元首相が「ロシアが負けることは考えられない。こんなにウクライナに力を入れていいのか？」と主張しているとの報道がありました。これは「強ければ戦争を仕掛けても良く、負けそうな国を助けるのは損だ！」との意味ですよね。こんな酷い考えの人間が日本のリーダーだったのは情けない。
さて、Yoko Ogawaの "the memory police" を読んでいます。

I looked at her again. She seemed solidly built, but her clothes were threadbare. Her work pants, which had probably been fashioned out of material from an old kimono, were tattered, and the shawl she had wrapped around her shoulders was pilling. There were holes at the toes of her tennis shoes.

架空の場所と時代の話なので英訳本で読んでいると、日本とは関係の無い世界の話ですが、たまに "kimono" の様な日本語が出てくるので原作者が日本人であることが確認できます。
"pilling" の意味を調べます。

・Wiktionary: Balls of fibre formed on clothing through usage, often called pill or pills.
・Collins Dictionary: to form into small, pill-like balls, as the fuzz on a wool sweater
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a small ball of threads that develops on the surface of clothes or material: She sat there sulking and picking the pills off her sweater.

毛玉もたしかに錠剤と同じ様に丸い物体ですね。

steel myself

Yoko Ogawaの "the memory police" を読んでいます。

The sound of the clock flows along the ceiling, strikes the wall, shakes the floor, and, having nowhere to go, rattles about the room for a long time. It washes over me like a crushing wave, and through I steel myself in an attempt to push it away, it's no use.

架空の島が舞台の記憶、言葉も実態も、消滅していくと言う不思議な話で、私の想像力の限界を超えています。それはさておき "steel myself" の意味を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: to prepare yourself to deal with something unpleasant: As she waited, she steeled herself for disappointment.
・Merriam-Webster: to make (oneself) ready for something difficult or unpleasant : to fill (oneself) with determination and courage: Steel yourself—I have bad news.
・Collins Dictionary: If you steel yourself, you prepare to deal with something unpleasant.: Those involved are steeling themselves for the coming battle.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to force yourself to get ready to do something unpleasant or difficult:
She steeled herself to jump out of the plane.

cryptid

Reader's Digest 10月号の記事 'Catherine Called Birdy' からの引用です。
The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters
Merriam-Webster defines a cryptid as "an animal that has been claimed to exist but never proven." After J. W. Ocker's lates, we're not so sure about that last part.

"cryptid" の意味は文中にありますね。　このブログでも2/26/2009にも取り上げました。 ネス湖の怪獣のような生物の事です。

hygrometer

Yoko Ogawaの "the memory police" を読み始めました。

"The box hasn't been used for a while and it's in pretty bad shape," he continued. "The paint is peeling and the latch was so rusted it was tricky to open. But I figured it out. The instruments are all broken--no mercury in the thermometer and a bent needle on the hygrometer--but that means no one else is likely to look inside. R's wife had left the package tucked out of sight in the back, just as we agreed."

上記の2番目の文章 "The paint is peeling and the latch was so rusted..." を転記した後に読み直すと、動詞の時制が現在形と過去形が混ざっていることに気づき原典を見直したが転記ミスではありませんでした。意図的なのか、ネイティブでも間違えるのか、あるいは元の日本語がその様になっていたのを忠実に訳したのかちょっと気になりました。
さて、"hygrometer" は初めて見る単語なので辞書を見ます。

・Collins Dictionary: any of various instruments for measuring humidity: Reptiles incubators generally consist of a thermostat and hygrometer.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a piece of equipment used to measure humidity (= how much water there is in the air): Humidity in vials was measured daily using a hand-held digital hygrometer.

簡単な言い方だと "humidity meter" ですね。

greener

Reader's Digest 10月号の記事 '12 Tips for More Sustainable Living' からの引用です。
Don't crush your cans.
First off, when you're on the go, drinks in cans are the way to go. Recycling aluminum is much more efficient than recycling plastic (about 85 percent of which ends up in landfills anyway), using less than 5 percent of the energy it takes to manufacture the ofiginal product (versus 67 percent for plastic). Glass bottles are also a far greener choice than plastic, since, like aluminum, glass can always be melted down and made into something new.

"greener" は環境に優しいの意味での "green" の比較級ですね。　辞書にこの意味の説明があるのか確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: connected with the protection of the environment; supporting the protection of the environment as a political principle: Try to adopt a greener lifestyle.
・Collins Dictionary: If you say that someone or something is green, you mean they harm the environment as little as possible.: ...trying to persuade governments to adopt greener policies.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: relating to the protection of the environment: a green campaigner/activist

docuseries / mockumentary

Reader's Digest 10月号の記事 'We caught our Stalker' からの引用です。
Carole Baskin, of course, is the infamous feline fanatic featured in Tiger King, the Netflix docuseries everyone in America seemed to be watching at the time.

"docuseries" は "documentary series" の事だと容易に推測できますが、辞書で確認します。

・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a documentary that is telecast in a series of programs
・Wiktionary: A documentary, or a collection of documentaries, presented as a series.
・Wikipedia: Television documentary series, sometimes called docuseries, are television series screened within an ordered collection of two or more televised episodes.

同じReader's Digest 10月号の別の記事（The RD LIST Read, Watch, Listen）に似たような表現がありました。

Class is in session--and so is season two of ABC's hit sitcom Abbot Elementary. The mockmentary fills the network comedy void left by The Office and Parks & Recreation, but this time, the workplace is Philadelphia's public school system.

辞書には "mockumentary" の項目しかありませんので "mockmentary" は私の転記ミスかもしれません。　(雑誌は既に返却したので確認できませんでした。)

・Oxford English Dictionary: a documentary designed to criticize its subject in a humorous way: The series is a mockumentary about office life.
・Collins Dictionary: a satirical television or radio programme in the form of a parody of a documentary: Can this really be real, or is it mockumentary?
・Wiktionary: A film or television programme presented as if it were a documentary but that is not factual and often a parody or satire.

a thing

Reader's Digest 10月号の記事 'Supernatural Visitors' からの引用です。

My sister Wendy once nursed and released an injured hummingbird. It became a thing, her and hummingbirds. As teenagers, we promised each other that if one of us died, she'd let the other know that she was OK. Wendy was the first to go, at 48.
Sitting outside one morning, I felt something repeatedly swoop low over my head. I yelled, "Wendy, if that's you, stop messing around and show me!" And suddenly a hummingbird hovered in front of my face.

先日 "Japan thing" を取り上げた気がしたのですが、記憶違いでした。上記の "a thing" は違う用法でしたが。いずれにせよ辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: a thing [singular] (informal, humorous) used to say that something is important or real: I don't understand why these corny films are still a thing in 2020.
・Collins Dictionary: You can call a person or an animal a particular thing when you want to mention a particular quality that they have and express your feelings towards them, usually affectionate feelings.: You really are quite a clever little thing.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: used after an adjective to refer to a person or animal with love or sympathy: The poor things were kept in small cages without room to move.