How To Win Friends and Influence Peopleに出てきた表現です。電話会社の請求書にクレームをつける人をなだめた逸話の一部を引用します。
And he did curse. He raved. He threatened to tear the phone out by its roots. He refused to pay certain charges that he declared were false. He wrote letters to the newspapers. He filed innumerable complaints with the Public Service Commission, and he started suits against the telephone company. At last, one of the company's most skillful "troubleshooters" was sent to interview this stormy petrel.
"petrel" はクレームをつける人を指しているようですが、どの辞書を見ても次ぎのように鳥の説明しかありません。
・Collins Dictionary: any oceanic bird of the order Procellariiformes, having a hooked bill and tubular nostrils: includes albatrosses, storm petrels, and shearwaters
・Vocabulary.com: relatively small long-winged tube-nosed bird that flies far from land
しかし、"stormy petrel" で調べると、上記の逸話にあった意味が載っていました。
・Collins Dictionary: a person who brings or portends trouble
・Dictionary.com: a person who causes or likes trouble or strife.
And he did curse. He raved. He threatened to tear the phone out by its roots. He refused to pay certain charges that he declared were false. He wrote letters to the newspapers. He filed innumerable complaints with the Public Service Commission, and he started suits against the telephone company. At last, one of the company's most skillful "troubleshooters" was sent to interview this stormy petrel.
"petrel" はクレームをつける人を指しているようですが、どの辞書を見ても次ぎのように鳥の説明しかありません。
・Collins Dictionary: any oceanic bird of the order Procellariiformes, having a hooked bill and tubular nostrils: includes albatrosses, storm petrels, and shearwaters
・Vocabulary.com: relatively small long-winged tube-nosed bird that flies far from land
しかし、"stormy petrel" で調べると、上記の逸話にあった意味が載っていました。
・Collins Dictionary: a person who brings or portends trouble
・Dictionary.com: a person who causes or likes trouble or strife.
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