cousin once removed

Reader's Digest 7月号のWord Powerにあった次ぎの表現の意味を推測するのは難しい。
"cousin once removed" 答えは次ぎのどれでしょうか？　　
A: your cousin's cousin
B: your cousin's child
C: your cousin's ex-spouse
答えはBでRDに掲載の例文は：
The universitiy allows only two commencement guests for each graduate What am I going to tell all my great -aunts and cousin once removed.
日本語でも甥と姪位までしか分からないのですが、
"cousin once removed" は表現として面白いと思いました。　なお、Family tree showing the relationship図がWikipedia の次のサイトにあるので参考になります。
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cousin_tree_(with_genetic_kinship).png

pall

"Bushido" のTHE INFLUENCE OF BUSHIDOの章には憶えたい表現がいっぱいあります。　今日の単語 "palls" もその一つです。
We cannot share the admiration of the Europeans for their roses, which lack the simplicity of our flower. Then, too, the thorns that are hidden beneath the sweetness of the rose, the tenacity with which she clings to life, as though loth or afraid to die rather than drop untimely, preferring to rot on her stem; her showy colors and heavy odors--all these are traits so unlike our flower, which carries no dagger or poison under its beauty, which is ever ready to depart life at the call of nature, whose colors are never gorgeous, and whose light fragrance never palls. Beauty of color and of form is limited in its showing; it is a fixed quality of existence, whereas fragrance is volatile, ethereal as the breathing of life.
バラと桜が比喩として使われています。　桜のほのかな香りは "never palls" とありますが、もちろん次ぎの文に "fragrance is volatile" とあるように、香りが消えない意味ではあり得ません。想像力に欠ける私は早速辞書です。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: lose strength or effectiveness; become or appear boring, insipid, or tiresome (to) ("The course palled on her"); become less interesting or attractive
・Collins English Dictionary: to become or appear boring, insipid, or tiresome (to): history classes palled on me
なるほど、納得です。 私には　"Studying English never palls." です。

Drosophila

  独立行政法人産業技術総合研究所（英語名：National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST))が発行するAIST Today (2010-1 issue)の記事に憶えたい単語が一つありました。　
タイトルと記事の引用します。
An invisible-light-entrainment mechanism of the Drosophila circadian rhythm
Re-entrainment of Drosophila rhodopsin mutants to red-LED light
Like most other insects, Drosophila visual system is insensitive to red light. However, Drosophila circadian rhythms can be entrained by red light. Here, we discovered the corresponding organs and rhodopsins responsible for the circadian entrainment of Drosophila to red light using rhodopsin mutants and red light emitting diodes (LEDs). The entrainment by red light was not observed in eyeless mutants of Drosophila. We also found that double Rhodopsin 1 (Rh1) and Rhodopsin 6 (Rh6) mutants were not entrained to red light, while single Rh1 mutants and single Rh6 mutants were both entrained to red light. These results indicate that Drosophila can entrain the circadian rhythm to red LED light through Rh1 and Rh6 in compound eyes.
専門用語と思われる "rhodopsin" （視紅）は覚える気はありません。　"circadian rhythm" はEnglish Collectionで２年程前の取り上げた（http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2008/01/22）２４時間周期の体内時計の事で、私が覚えたい単語は昆虫の "Drosophila" です。 "Drosophila" を辞書で見ます。
・Compact Oxford English Dictionary: a small fruit fly, used extensively in genetic research because of its large chromosomes, numerous varieties, and rapid rate of reproduction
研究用のショウジョウバエの事を英語では "Drosophila" と言うのですね。　 "Drosophila" の実物を見た事がないので、英絵辞書があれば良いなと思ったら気が付きました。　Wikipedia には写真が載っているはずだと。　と言うわけで写真はWikipediaにあったものです。

valor

私のブログは自分で読んだり、聞いた（これは滅多にありませんが）英単語・慣用句で、なるべく憶えたい表現を取り上げるために書いています。　そのために英語表現以外の事は余り書かないようにしていますが、新渡戸稲造著のBushidoを読んでいて、そのSOURCES OF BUSHIDOの章に次ぎのように「論語読みの論語知らず」の事が書かれていました。
A common proverb ridicules one who has only an intellectual knowledge of Confucius, as a man ever studious but ignorant of Analects.
と言うわけで今日は次ぎの話題について思った事を書きます。
COURAGE, THE SPIRIT OF DARING AND BEARINGの章
Kenshin, hearing of his enemy's dilemma and able to obtain his salt from the coast of his own dominions, wrote Shingen that in his opinion the Hojo lord had committed a very mean act, and that although he (Kenshin) was at war with him (Shingen) he had ordered his subjects to furnish him with plenty of salt--adding, "I do not fight with salt, but with the sword," affording more than a parallel to the words of Camillus, "We Romans do not fight with gold, but with iron." Nietzsche spoke for the samurai heart when he wrote, "You are to be proud of your enemy; then, the success of your enemy is your success also." Indeed valor and honor alike required that we should own as enemies in war only such as prove worthy of being friends in peace. When valor attains this height, it becomes akin to
謙信のこの話は敵に塩という日本語表現になっているので誰でも知っている事で、美談というか、スポーツのフェアプレイを思い起させる、良い行為の様にこれまでも認識しておりました。　しかし、何故か今回はふと北朝鮮への経済制裁の事が頭に浮かびました。　経済制裁はまさに敵に塩の反対の行為です。　武士道精神からすると戒めなければならない行動になります。　私は、恐らくマスメディアの影響で、北朝鮮への制裁は当然と思っていますが、経済制裁によりキム政権が倒れるならともかく、北朝鮮の一般大衆の生活がますます貧しくなるだけの気もします。新渡戸稲造が今生きていたら何と言うでしょうか。
今日のタイトルに使った "valor" は勇気、武勇として覚えている単語ですが "courage" とのニュアンスの違いを辞書（OneLook Quick Definitions）で見てみました。
courage: a quality of spirit that enables you to face danger of pain without showing fear
valor: the qualities of a hero or heroine; exceptional or heroic courage when facing danger (especially in battle); "He received a medal for valor"
やはり違いがある様です。 しかし、次ぎの様な文を読むと違いは微妙ですね。
Prov. It is good to be brave, but it is also good to be careful.; If you are careful, you will not get into situations that require you to be brave.
Son: Can I go hang gliding with my friends?
Father: No.
Son: But they'll say I'm chicken if I don't go!
Father: Discretion is the better part of valor, and I'd rather have them call you chicken than risk your life.
この "valor" は格言の中で良く使われるのでやはり "courage" より硬い、重みがあるのでしょう。

agnate and cognate

図書館の予約競争に負けたのでReader's Digestの６月号はまだ借りられませんが、７月号は予約順が一位だったので６月号より先に借りられました。　毎号難しい単語の問題が出るRD７月号のWord Powerは家族、親族に関係する語彙の問題でした。　私は１５問中６問しか分かりませんでしたが、分からなかった９問の内３つの単語を覚えたいと思います。最初に取り上げる単語は "agnate" でその意味は次ぎのどれでしょうか？
A: related on the father's side
B: descended from royalty
C: of a child with unmarried parents
答えはAでRDに掲載の例文は：
My last name has no vowels because immigration officials misheard my agnate grandfather.
当然related on the mother's sideは何と言うのか、そしてそれも一緒に覚えたいので調べると、
"
cognate" が "agnate" の対語、"Law: a blood relative, especially on the mother's side"(COED) になる事が分かりましたが、
"
cognate" は次ぎのように意味の幅が広いので要注意です。
・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary:
1. allied by blood--having a common ancestor or parentage;
2. in language, having the same root or origin; (n.) words that have the same root or languages that are genetically related

Precious thing

The following was a post I found on Asahis Shinbun (Japanese version):
Mum: You should stash away your precious thing.
Kid: Then, where can I stash away mum?

leaven

次ぎの文は "Bushido" のTHE INFLUENCE OF BUSHIDOの章にある文です。
In manifold ways has Bushido filtered down from the social class where it originated, and acted as leaven among the masses, furnishing a moral standard for the whole people. The Precepts of Knighthood, begun at first as the glory of the elite, became in time an aspiration and inspiration to the nation at large; and though the populace could not attain the moral height of those loftier souls, yet Yamato Damashii, the Soul of Japan, ultimately came to express the Volksgeist of the Island Realm. If religion is no more than "Morality touched by emotion," as Matthew Arnold defines it, few ethical systems are better entitled to the rank of religion than Bushido.
武士道が大衆に普及するのに "leaven" として働いたと理解できますが、 "leaven" とは何でしょう？　早速辞書で調べます。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: an influence that works subtly to lighten or modify something ("His sermons benefited from a leavening of humor")
・Compact Oxford English Dictionary: a substance, typically yeast, that is added to dough to make it ferment and rise; dough that is reserved from an earlier batch in order to start a later one fermenting; figurative a pervasive influence that modifies something or transforms it for the better: they acted as an intellectual leaven to the warriors who dominated the city
・Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary: a) to add a substance to bread or another food made with flour to make it get bigger when it is cooked b) formal to make something less boring: Even a speech on a serious subject should be leavened with a little humour
COEDにある最後の例文はまるで "Bushido" からヒントを得た文に思えます。Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionaryの説明 b)の例文は私には難しい注文です。日曜日に気に入ったジョークを掲載して誤魔化していますが。

Managers versus Metrologists

勤め先が精密計測機を扱っている関係で、ある米国の計測器メーカーのサイトを見ていたら、Just for Funというページがあり、計測に関係するジョークが幾つか載っていました。　次ぎの文はその一つです。　
A group of managers were asked to measure the height of a flagpole. They fetched a ladder and tape measure and headed to the flagpole to perform their task. They weren't having much luck because they kept dropping the tape measure and falling off the ladder.
Observing what they were attempting to do, a metrologist approached them and offered to help. He pulled the flagpole out of the ground, laid it down flat, measured it from one end to the other, gave the measurements to one of the managers and walked away.
After the metrologist had gone, one of the managers turned to the others and said, "Well, isn't that just like a metrologist? We're looking for the height of the flagpole and he tells us the length."

Note: Metrologists perform metrology work involving precision measurement and comparison of physical quantities such as mass, length, time, force, speed, voltage and current;.Metrology is the scientific study of measurement.
最後のオチは上の注だけではまだ分からない方もいると思うので補足します。ある物理量を計測する際、ほとんどの場合は直接その物理量を計測するのではなく、その物理量の変化と関係する（単純なケースは比例）物理量を計測することから来ています。　例えば、温度を測るのに水銀柱の温度計を使用しますが、これは温度ではなく水銀柱の高さを測っているのです。　水平思考を思い起す話でした。

esoteric and exoteric

次ぎの文は "Bushido" のTHE INFLUENCE OF BUSHIDOの章からの引用です。
I admit Bushido had its esoteric and exoteric teachings; these were eudemonistic, looking after the welfare and happiness of the commonalty, while those were aretaic, emphasizing the practice of virtues for their own sake.
"esoteric" は "the Shingon sect of esoteric Buddhism" などのように密教を英語で説明する時に使われる事を通訳ガイドの勉強をした時に覚えました。　もっとも、密教の意味は秘密の宗教なのかお経が難解なのかも分かっていないのですが。 "exoteric" は初めて会う単語ですが、上の様な表現を見ると、"esoteric" と対の意味ではないかと想像します。　つまり "exoteric" は分かり易いの意味と推測しましたがどうでしょう？　辞書で確認します。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: suitable for the general public ("Writings of an exoteric nature")
・Collins English Dictionary: intelligible to or intended for more than a select or initiated minority: an exoteric account of a philosophical doctrine
分かり易いではなく、万人向けで、特定のグループの人向けではないと言う意味でしたね。もちろん、状況によっては、万人向けイコール分かり易いになると思いますが。

scotch

July 27, 2010のThe Japan Times Onlineのキャプションです。
Watanabe again scotches Your Party coalition talk
"scotches" は動詞ですね。スコッチと来ると、ウィスキーで代表される "Scotch" の意味しか私には出てきません。　とりあえず記事を読んでみます。　
Your Party chief Yoshimi Watanabe on Monday reiterated that his group won't form a coalition with the Democratic Party of Japan or the Liberal Democratic Party, but he did indicate his door is open to anyone to join him if they agree with his party's political agenda.
連立はしないと再び確認したとの内容なので "scotch" には否定的な意味があるようですが辞書で確認します。
・OneLook Quick Definitions: hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of
・Dictionary.com: to put a definite end to; crush; stamp out; foil: to scotch a rumor; to scotch a plan.
・V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionary: to prevent or put an end to something, usually abruptly
Tips: The verb scotch essentially refers to putting an end to something. It is a useful word in the context of scotching (stopping) rumors. Scotch can also mean "to prevent something from moving by using a wedge," or can refer to the wedge itself. When you jam a wooden wedge under a door to keep it open, you scotch it. Scotch is also used to denote putting a small notch or score in the surface of something, like building materials or fabric, but this usage is no longer common--the word "score" is better for this. As an adjective, Scotch relates to Scotland or its people, but is not a favorable term among the people of Scotland. Usage Examples: The celebrity scotched the rumors of his affair by threatening to sue any publications that ran the story. (prevented, ended)
なるほど、キャプションの "scotches" は「打ち消す」の意味ですね。　それにしてもV2 Vocabulary Building Dictionaryの説明は丁寧で良いですね。