wet nurse

John Grishamの小説 "Camino Winds" を読み終えたので次の本を借りたいところですが、予約している雑誌のReader's Digestが数日後に借りられるはずなのでその間に簡単に読める本として、速読本の "Les Miserables" と "Madam Bovary" を借りました。1番レベルの高い速読本ですが速読本なので取り上げたい表現や単語は "Les Miserables" には全くありませんでしたが、"Madam Bovary" には三つの知らない単語が出てきました。

As the doctor felt that his wife was not strong enough to feed the baby herself, the little girl was sent to a wet nurse. With nothing else to do in the days after the birth, Emma tried to think of a name for her daughter. First she went through names with Italian endings like Clara Louisa, Amanda. She rather liked old names like Galsuinde, of Yseult of Leocadie. Charles wanted the child to be called after her mother. Emma said no.

"wet nurse" は文脈から乳母と推測できますが、辞書で確認します。

・Collins Dictionary: In former times, a wet nurse was a woman who was paid to breast-feed another woman's baby.: Experts say anyone acting as a wet nurse should be screened for illness beforehand.
・Merriam-Webster: a woman who cares for and breastfeeds children not her own: The story begins with Agnes, a woman hired as a wet nurse by a wealthy family after the death of her own son.

後の二つの単語は現在あるいは日本では全く使わない単語なのでブログには取り上げません。
"Les Miserables" と "Madam Bovary"　の両方共フランス人の作品なので人名が難しく、英語版でも読みにくかった。

call out

私が勤めている会社で取り扱っている海外製品のカタログから一部を引用します。

Our best-selling 9230A-30 model falls into this range. This model has the same ohmic value (i.e. 0.1 Ω) as the older series 9230/15 but can handle twice the current (i.e. up to 30 A)!
The 9230A-30 shunt provides better performance than the 9230/15 and is an excellent replacement providing the same voltage outputs as called out in many established procedures developed by Keysight (i.e. Agilent), Ametek, Tektronix and other leading Power Supply manufacturers.

上記の "called out" 駆動詞の意味を辞書で調べます。
引用文での文脈に合う意味を説明する辞書は何故か次の一つしかありませんでした。

・Wiktionary: To specify, especially in detail.: They call out 304 stainless steel in the drawing, but the part was made from aluminum.

念の為にこの解釈が正しいか ChatGPTにも訊いてみました。
ChatGPT: Yes, you're absolutely right—"called out" in this sentence means "specified" or "identified".
In technical or engineering contexts, "called out" often refers to something that is explicitly stated or listed in documents such as procedures, drawings, or specifications.
Paraphrase: ...providing the same voltage outputs as specified in many established procedures developed by Keysight (i.e. Agilent), Ametek, Tektronix, and other leading power supply manufacturers."
So yes, "called out" = "specified" in this context.

この用法を何故他の辞書は載せていないのか不思議です。

go-to guy

John Grishamの小説 "Camino Winds" を読んでいます。

He'd been booted from the Marines for insubordination, then hired by a private U.S. mercenary gang to do dirty work in Iraq. He'd survived two years in a Syrian jail for smuggling guns. He'd been indicted in New Orleans for importing cocain, but somehow walked. He'd spent three years in a federal prison for an insurance scam, and a week after being paroled landed a five-million-dollar defense contract to supply orange juice to U.S. troops. Somewhere along the way he took up killing for profit and became a go-to guy for high-end contracts.

"go-to" の意味を辞書で調べます。


・Merriam-Webster: relied on and regularly turned to for expert knowledge, skill, or performance: Brown became the go-to researcher for genetic conundrums.
・Collins Dictionary: You use go-to to say that someone or something is the best person, place or thing for a particular purpose or situation.: He is normally my go-to guy when I am struggling.
・Wiktionary: likely to perform in difficult circumstances.: Smith is your go-to person if you want lasting results.

pegged her age

John Grishamの小説 "Camino Winds" を読んでいます。
"Twice a year. The usual, shopping and Broadway and a new restraunt or two, with some girls from Houston."
It was obvious Dad had expensive tastes and lived well. Noelle pegged her age at forty-one, max.
Bruce returned to the sofa and asked, "Now where were we?"

"pegged her age at forty-one" は彼女の年齢を４１歳と自信を持って推測したのでしょう。 "peg" の用法を辞書で調べます。なかなか引用文にピッタリの説明は見つかりませんでしたが、次の辞書が最も合っていると思います。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to guess the cost, amount, or level of something:　Future costs stemming from those lawsuits have been pegged as high as $8 billion.
又、次の辞書の後半の例も合っていますね。
・Vocabulary.com: A coat rack might consist of a line of wooden pegs, and you might also secure a tent by driving metal pegs into the ground to hold it there. When you fasten or pierce something with a peg, you can say you peg it. Informally, if you peg a person, you make a judgment about them: "I'd peg him as a messy housekeeper based on the way his dorm room looks."

chicken scratch

John Grishamの小説 "Camino Winds" を読んでいます。
"We went through Nelson's stuff after the police were finished. There wasn't much. Virtually all of his notes and research were, evidently, in his computer and heavily encrypted. But there were three notebooks with all sorts of random chicken scratch.

"chicken scratch" は乱雑に書かれた字の様ですが、辞書で確認します。
・Wiktionary: Cramped or illegible handwriting.: The pencil in my hand was limp between my fingers and I couldn't focus on the chicken scratch on the pages.
・American Heritage Dictionary: An instance of cramped or illegible handwriting: "his signature—an unforgeably idiosyncratic chicken scratch".

スラングとなっていましたが、意味は容易に推測できますね。