pace

Marx for Beginnersは読み終えたので、図書館から借りる本の予約待ちの期間に読む本を "How To Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegieにします。この本は、４０年以上前に私が初めて読んだ英語の原書です。９月頃だったと記憶していますが、大学卒業前の会社の内定式で会社の顧問の方が、入社前に読むと良い本だと推薦されたので読んだものです。
この本は非常に説得力のある本で、その理由は多くの逸話で著者の主張を裏付けているからです。
この本から取り上げる最初の表現は、南北戦争時のリンカーンの逸話からです。
Time after time, during the Civil War, Lincoln put a new general at the head of the Army of the Potomac, and each one in turn--McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Meade--blundered tragically and drove Lincoln to pacing the floor in despair. Half the nation savagely condemned these incompetent generals, but Lincoln, "with malice toward none, with charity for all," held his peace. One of his favorite quotations was "Judge not, that ye be not judged."
"pacing the floor in despair" の表現の "pace" は日本語にもなっていて、一定の速度で歩く（走る、その他の動作）意味で使われますが、上の文での意味は一定の速度（だけ）ではないでしょう。辞書で確認します。
・Macmillan Dictionary: to walk with regular steps around a small area, because you are worried, nervous, or impatient: pace up and down: He paced up and down between the kitchen and the living room.: pace around: She was pacing restlessly around the room as she talked.
・Oxford English Dictionary: walk at a steady speed, especially without a particular destination and as an expression of anxiety or annoyance: we paced up and down in exasperation
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to walk in one direction and then in the opposite direction, often because you are worried or waiting for something to happen: She paced back and forth outside the courtroom.
なるほど、心配事、悩み事がある時にそわそわと歩き回る感じですね。