ballpark figure of speech

Reader's Digest 5月号のコラム記事 "Ballpark Figure of Speech" から引用します。
Most of us prefer to say someone "passed away" rather than "died," or got "let go" instead of "fired." But while more than 9 in 10 Americans use euphemisms such as these, nearly 3 in 5 admit to having used one without really knowing what it meant. Among the most confusing:
"Economical" (cheap)
"For the birds" (unimportant)
"Frumpy" (unattractive)
"Indisposed" (in the restroom)
"Monday morning quarterback" (someone who criticizes after the event)
"Up to scratch" (good enough)

"ballpark figure" は普通数値とか量についての概算を言うのですが、この記事のタイトルでは "Figure of Speech" を指していますね。
ここでの "Figure of Speech" は "euphemism" を指しているのは文脈からも分かりますが、 "figure of speech" の説明を辞書で見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a word or phrase used in a different way from its usual meaning in order to create a particular mental picture or effect: When we talk about ‘selfish’ genes it is just a figure of speech.
・Collins Dictionary: A figure of speech is an expression or word that is used with a metaphorical rather than a literal meaning.: Of course I'm not. It was just a figure of speech.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: an expression that uses words to mean something different from their ordinary meaning: "Break a leg" is a figure of speech, meaning "good luck".

tact

Vladimir Nabokovの "Lolita" を読んでいます。

Of the two houses flanking the bit of scrubby waste opposite, one was closed, and the other contained two professors of English, tweedy and short-haired Miss Lester and fadedly feminine Miss Fabian, whose only subject of brief sidewalk conversation with me was (God bless their tact!) the young loveliness of my daughter and the nave charm of Gaston Godin. My east-door neighbor was by far the most dangerous one, a sharp-nosed stock character whose late brother had been attached to the College as Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds.

"God bless their tact!" の "tact" の意味を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: the ability to deal with difficult or embarrassing situations carefully and without doing or saying anything that will annoy or upset other people: Settling the dispute required great tact and diplomacy.
・Collins Dictionary: Tact is the ability to avoid upsetting or offending people by being careful not to say or do things that would hurt their feelings.: On this occasion the press have not been intrusive and they have shown great tact.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: the ability to say or do the right thing without making anyone unhappy or angry: He's never had much tact and people don't like his blunt manner.

「如才ない」と似ていますね。　Vocabulary.comの次の説明も参考になります。
To talk carefully without hurting anyone’s feelings, that’s tact. Politicians have tact, which makes them good at speaking about sensitive matters without making fools of themselves. At least, sometimes they have tact.
Around a friend who’s afraid of snakes, you use tact when talking about reptiles because you don’t want to upset them. The Latin root word tangere means “touch,” and a person with tact avoids touching dangerous words like they are an electric fence. When you say something without tact, you “put your foot in your mouth,” as the phrase goes. You don’t literally put your foot in your mouth, although if you did you’d avoid offending people with words.

reel off

Vladimir Nabokovの "Lolita" を読んでいます。

At my first interview with headmistress Pratt, she approved of my child’s “nice blue eyes” (blue! Lolita!) and of my own friendship with that “French genius” (a genius! Gaston!)and then, having turned Dolly over to a Miss Cormorant, she wrinkled her brow in a kind of recueillement and said:
“We are not so much concerned, Mr. Humbird, with having our students become bookworms or be able to reel off all the capitals of Europe which nobody knows anyway, or learn by heart the dates of forgotten battles. What we are concerned with is the adjustment of the child to group life. This is why we stress the four D’s: Dramatics, Dance, Debating and Dating. We are confronted by certain facts. Your delightful Dolly will presently enter an age group where dates, dating, date dress, date book, date etiquette, mean as much to her as, say, business, business connections, business success, mean to you, or as much as [smiling] the happiness of my girls means to me.

辞書にはない難しい単語 "recueillement" がありますが、それは無視して、その次の文にある "reel off" ですが、文脈からすると、そらんじる意味の様です。　辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: to say or repeat something quickly without having to stop or think about it: She immediately reeled off several names.
・Collins Dictionary: If you reel off information, you repeat it from memory quickly and easily.: She reeled off the titles of a dozen or so of the novels.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to say a long list of things quickly and without stopping: The old man reeled off the names of his 22 grandchildren.

この手の勉強は昔の入試では必須でした。　今はインターネットがあるので記憶に頼る勉強の必要性は減っているでしょうね。　とは言っても、記憶力が全く不要になった訳ではありませんが。

pump

Vladimir Nabokovの "Lolita" を読んでいます。

She would be, figuratively speaking wagging her tiny tail, her whole behind in fact as little bitches do--while some grinning stranger accosted us and began a bright conversation with a comparative study of license plates. “Long way from home!” Inquisitive parents, in order to pump Lo about me, would suggest her going to a movie with their children.

"pump" の意味を辞書で見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (informal) to try to get information from somebody by asking them a lot of questions: See if you can pump him for more details.
・Collins Dictionary: If you pump someone about something, you keep asking them questions in order to get information.: Stop trying to pump information out of me.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to keep asking someone for information, especially in a way that is not direct: She was pumping me for details of the new project.

探りを入れる感じで聞き出す時に使われるのですね。

spic and span

Vladimir Nabokovの "Lolita" を読んでいます。

We came to know the curious roadside species, Hitchhiking Man, Homo pollex of science, with all its many sub-species and forms; the modest soldier, spic and span, quietly waiting, quietly conscious of khaki’s viatric appeal; the schoolboy wishing to go two blocks; the killer wishing to go two thousand miles; the mysterious, nervous, elderly gent, with brand-new suitcase and clipped mustache; a trio of optimistic Mexicans; the college student displaying the grime of vacational outdoor work as proudly as the name of the famous college arching across the front of his sweatshirt; the desperate lady whose battery has just died on her; the clean-cut, glossy-haired, shifty-eyed, white-faced young beasts in loud shirts and coats, vigorously, almost priapically thrusting out tense thumbs to tempt lone women or sadsack salesmen with fancy cravings.

相変わらず 'pollex'、'viatric'(これは辞書にはなかった。viatic/viaticalのこと？)、'priapically' と難しい単語が出てきますが、これらは無視して、"spic and span" はどこかで見たことのある表現なので、辞書を引きます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: not usually before noun] neat and clean: Their house is always spick and span.
・Collins Dictionary: A place that is spick and span is very clean and tidy.: The apartment was spick and span.

スペルは "spick and span" の方がよく使われるようですね。

tiddles

昨日の続きです。
'My little cup brims with tiddles' についてのChatGPTの説明は以下の通りでした。

In the context of the novel, this sentence is spoken by the protagonist, Humbert Humbert, as he describes a childhood memory of his first love, Annabel. The phrase "My little cup brims with tiddles" is a metaphorical expression conveying his intense and overflowing feelings of desire and attraction for Annabel. The word "tiddles" in this context refers to a colloquial term for feelings of sexual excitement or arousal.

It's important to note that "Lolita" is a complex and controversial novel, exploring themes of obsession, desire, and the destructive power of illicit relationships. The use of language and metaphors throughout the book often reflects Humbert's disturbed and unreliable perspective.

"My little cup brims with tiddles" の説明としては大体納得でき、辞書には出ていなかった "tiddles" の解説はなるほどと思いました。　但し、"cup" が具体的には何を示しているかの説明がなかったので、辞書をみると、"a hard cover worn by men to protect their sex organs when playing sports" の説明を見つけたので多分このことを指しているのだろうと推測します。
ChatGPTは役に立ちそうだ。　 "Lolita" には他にも分からない個所がいっぱいあるので、又使って見よう。　

ChatGPT

最近ChatGPTがよく話題になっていますが、AIについては余り信用していないので、聞き流していました。　しかし、現在読んでいる小説 'Lolita' は難しい単語や表現が頻出し、しかも英英辞書にも掲載されていない単語も多く出てくるので、もしかしてChatGPTが使えるかと思い、試してみました。
とりあえず問い合わせたのは "My little cup brims with tiddles" の意味です。　（"tiddles" の意味は辞書には見当たりません）
最初のChatGPTの回答は次の内容でした。
The sentence "My little cup brims with tiddles" is not from the novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. In fact, this sentence does not appear in any of Nabokov's works, including "Lolita." It is possible that you may have encountered a misquotation or a variation of the original text. It's important to note that misattributions or misquotations can sometimes occur in popular culture or online sources. If you have any further questions or need information about specific quotes or passages from "Lolita" or any other topic, please let me know, and I'll be happy to assist you.

なーんだ、やはりChatGPTの実力も大したことはないなと思いましたが、次の補足をしてみました。

The sentence appears in part one, chapter 5 of Lolita.

すると、ChatGPTは素直に謝りを認め次の返事をしてきました。

I apologize for the incorrect information provided earlier. You are right; the sentence "My little cup brims with tiddles" does appear in "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. Thank you for pointing that out.

そして、実際に回答をしてきました。 謝罪するところはかなり人間味を感じますね。　回答の内容は明日投稿します。

teleological

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。

toilet signs

トイレの話題が続きますが今日もトイレです。 Vladimir Nabokovの "Lolita" を読んでいると、トイレ表示について興味深い記述がありました。

Now and then, in the vastness of those plains, huge trees would advance toward us to cluster self-consciously by the roadside and provide a bit of humanitarian shade above a picnic table, with sun flecks, flattened paper cups, samaras and discarded ice-cream sticks littering the brown ground. A great user of roadside facilities, my unfastidious Lo would be charmed by toilet signs Guys-Gals, John-Jane, Jack-Jill and even Buck’s-Doe’s; while lost in an artist’s dream, I would stare at the honest brightness of the gasoline paraphernalia against the splendid green of oaks, or at a distant hill scrambling outscarred but still untamed from the wilderness of agriculture that was trying to swallow it.

"Guys-Gals, John-Jane, Jack-Jill, Buck’s-Doe’s" の何れも言葉で男と女を表していますが、考えてみると日本では男と女の表示はたまに入口には漢字で表されていることもありますが、ほとんどの場合、絵文字のサインで表示されていますね。上記の個所を日本語に訳すのに翻訳者は困るでしょうね。太郎、花子などの表示は見たことがありません。

English toilet water

Vladimir Nabokovの "Lolita" を読んでいます。

Clumsily playing my part, I stomped to the bathroom to check if they had taken my English toilet water; they had not; but I noticed with a spasm of fierce disgust that the former Counselor of the Tsar, after thoroughly easing his bladder, had not flushed the toilet. That solemn pool of alien urine with a soggy, tawny cigarette butt disintegrating in it struck me as a crowning insult, and I wildly looked around for a weapon.

日本語になっているトイレはあれ一つしかありませんが、"English toilet water" の "toilet" はそれ以外を指しているに違いありません。 辞書を見ます。

"toilet" で調べると日本語で使われるトイレ以外の説明はほとんどありませんでしたが、次の説明がありました。
・Collins Dictionary:　of or for dressing or grooming oneself: toilet articles
・Wiktionary: Until the late 19th century, toilet referred solely to personal grooming, including bathing and hair care. This still appears in toiletries and in various set phrases, such as toilet water and toilet bag. This use is sometimes understood as a new borrowing from French, despite being the older sense of the English word. Medical jargon also includes some set phrases such as pulmonary toilet and toilet of the mouth; in both cases the word toilet means general hygiene.

なるほど、元々の "toilet" の意味は現在よく使われているトイレではないのだ。　そこで "toilet water" で辞書を引くと、小説で使われている "toilet water" の説明がありました。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a kind of perfume (= a pleasant-smelling liquid for the skin) that contains a lot of water and does not smell very strong
Wiktionary: A perfumed mixture of water and alcohol somewhat like cologne; eau de toilette.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a weak perfume (= liquid with a pleasant smell, used on the skin): Toilet water has the least amount of perfume oil mixture among the three main liquid perfumery categories.
・Collins Dictionary: Toilet water is fairly weak and inexpensive perfume.