episodic

先日（5/6/2022）一時的な病気の症状で使用される "episode" を取り上げましたが、その形容詞の "episodic" が使われている記事を見かけました。The Japan Times, May 11, 2022の記事から引用します。

Buckingham Palace said she skipped the annual showpiece on medical advice, making the decision "reluctantly" as she continues to experience "episodic mobility problems."

辞書の説明を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Occurring occasionally and at irregular intervals.: Many causes of abdominal pain are episodic in nature, but the episodes may be weeks to months apart.
・Collins Dictionary: Something that is episodic occurs at irregular and infrequent intervals.: ..episodic attacks of fever.

presbyopic

Cixin Liuの "The Three-Body Problem" を読んでいます。Mozi and Fiery Flamesの章からです。

Ye was alone at home. When Wang entered, she was sitting on the sofa reading. Wang noticed that her eyes were both myopic and presbyopic, and she had to switch glasses both when she read and when she looked at something far away. She was very happy to see Wang, and said that he looked much better than the last time he had come to see her.

"myopic" は近視を意味することを知っていますが、"presbyopic" の単語は知りませんでした。　私は "myopic" で、歳と共に老視も出てきたので、上記のYeさんと似たような状況なので、（バイフォーカルの眼鏡を使っているので、眼鏡を替えることはありませんが） "presbyopic" は老視の意味だと思いますが、辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Farsightedness caused by loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye, occurring typically in middle and old age.: ‘A number of changes occur in the eye as you grow older, but most experts agree that a hardening of your lens causes presbyopia.’
・Collins Dictionary: a progressively diminishing ability of the eye to focus, noticeable from middle to old age, caused by loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens:
・Dictionary.com: farsightedness due to ciliary muscle weakness and loss of elasticity in the crystalline lens.: Still another defect of vision is known as presbyopia or farsightedness due to old age.

"presbyopic/presbyopia" は自分の事でもあるので覚えましょう。

non sequitur

今日取り上げる表現もCixin Liuの "The Three-Body Problem"、The Shooter and the Farmarの章からです。 "non sequitur" はこれまで2度 '5/30/2017' と '4/14/2011'　に取り上げていますが未だに憶えられず、憶えても直ぐに忘れています。

When he finished, Shen spoke for the first time. "How's the nanomaterial project you're leading proceeding?"
This non sequitur disoriented Wang. "The nanomaterial project? What does that have to do with this?" He pointed at the rolls of film.

'4/14/2011'　に取り上げた際に "sequitur" が "sequence" の仲間だと知ると憶えられそうです」と書いたにも拘わらず忘れたので、再度この表現の由来の個所を引用します。
・Wiktionary: From the Latin phrase nōn sequitur (“it does not follow”), from nōn (“not”) + sequitur (third-person form of sequor (“I follow”)); in Latin, the phrase sees no use as a noun. Compare sequence, from same root.

Hedge Fund Manager

核兵器禁止条約に参加しない日本、第１回締約国会議が開幕しましたが、オブザーバーとしてもやはり参加しません。　核保有国が参加しないので意味がないとの理由だそうだ。　私には詭弁としか聞こえません。現在核を保有していない国への核兵器拡散を防ぐ気はないのでしょうか？　世界で唯一の原爆被災国として核兵器の廃絶を声を大にして主張している国民も少なくはないと思いますが、政府は本気で核兵器廃絶を望んでいるとは思えません。日本が原爆被災国となった理由を考えたり、そして現在ロシアがウクライナに対して行っているのと同じような事、あるいはもっと酷いことをアジアの多くの他国で行って来たことを思い出したくないのでしょう。　単純に言うと、天皇陛下万歳と言って戦争していた日本、その反省もせず、責任もあいまいにした新しい憲法の基で進んで来た日本、それを率いる政治家は結局あいまいな責任をとらないやり方が一番と確信していて、それを多くの日本人は気がついていない、考えていない。つまり支持してきたと言えるのでしょう。　私も政治には余り関心がなく、何の行動もしていませんが、政治家にとっては無関心層が多い程やりやすいのでしょうね。　　
今日のニュースを聞いて感じた、つい硬いことを書いたので冗談で締めます。
Reader's Digest 5月号の記事 'LAUGHTER the Best Medicine' からの引用です。
As the hedge fund manager steps out of his Porsche, a truck goes racing by, taking the door off the hinges.
"My Porsche! My beautiful silver Porsche is ruined!" he screams.
A police officer on the scene shakes his head in disgust.
"Unbelievable," he says. "You're so focused on your possessions that you didn't even realize your left arm was shorn off when the truck hit you."
The hedge fund manager looks down in absolute horror.
"Oh, no!" he cries. "My Rolex!"
このジョークで政治家が保身ばかり考えていることをつい連想してしまいました。

haptic

Cixin Liuの "The Three-Body Problem" を読んでいます。文化革命から40年以上経たThe Shooter and the Farmarの章からの引用です。

Wang knocked on the door. It wasn't locked, and it opened a crack. Shen was seated in front of a computer, playing a game. He was surprised to see that she wore a V-suit.
The Vsuit was a very popular piece of equipment among gamers, made up of a panoramic viewing helmet and a haptic feedback suit. The suit allowed the player to experience the sensations of the game: being struck by a fist, being stabbed by a knife, being burned by flames, and cold, even simulating the sensation of being exposed in a snowstorm.

話の時代が現在に近づいてきました。　"haptic feedback suit" はこの後の文からすると、殴られたり、ナイフで刺されたり、あるいは熱や寒さも実際の様に感じることが出来る衣服ですね。 "haptic" を辞書で調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception.: ‘haptic feedback devices create the illusion of substance and force within the virtual world’
・Collins Dictionary: relating to or based on the sense of touch: Haptic devices may also be able to trigger emotions in viewers.
・Vocabulary.com: Anything that's haptic has to do with the sense of touch. When you feel your phone vibrate in your pocket, you're getting a haptic signal that your friend just texted you.
Haptic is a technical term, and it's most often used to talk about new technology. Virtual reality games are much more "real" when haptic sensations are involved — in other words, when you can actually feel cool air around you or shifting ground under your feet, rather than simply seeing the virtual environment with your eyes. The word comes from a Greek root, haptikos, "able to come into contact with."

なるほど、昨年から着用しているスマートウォッチも何かニュースが入って来ると振動するので、時計の画面を見るとニュースが表示されていますが、文字が小さいので私には読み難い。この振動も "haptic" 信号なのですね。

bandolier

Cixin Liuの "The Three-Body Problem" を読み始めました。
何でこの本を選んだのか覚えていませんが、多分タイトルが気になったのだと思います。話の前に書かれている読者からの賛辞を読むと中国人作家のSF小説であることが分かりました。とろこが読み始めるとあの中国の文化革命の最中、1967年から話は始まっています。もともとSFは余り好きではないのですが、まあいいか、という感じで読みます。第1章の 'The Madness Years' から引用します。
Twice the number of Red Guards used for other victims escorted Ye onto the stage: two men and four women. The two young men strode with confidence and purpose, the very image of mature Bolshevik youths. They were both fourth-year students majoring in the theoretical physics, and Ye was their professor. The women, really girls, were much younger, second-year students from the junir high school attached to the university. Dressed in military uniforms and equipped with bandoliers, they exuded youthful vigor and surrounded Ye Zhetai like four green flames.

紅衛兵が身に着けていた "bandoliers" は何でしょうか？　辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A shoulder-belt with loops or pockets for cartridges.: It was also decided that all Marines would carry their sleeping bags, an extra bandolier of small arms ammunition, and extra stretchers - initially to carry ammunition and then casualties.
・Collins Dictionary: a soldier's broad shoulder belt having small pockets or loops for cartridges: Each soldier was given a bandolier of 50 rounds.

本物は見たことがありませんが、戦争映画などでよく見かけますね。

heel

Reader's Digest 3/4月合併号の記事 'Pandemic Silver Lining' からの引用です。
And just like that, we had a new companion on our miles-long jaunts. Marlie, a goldendoodle, trots down the road with her tail wagging and her head high. She knows "heel" very well--luckily for us--and will stop and point when she sees a squirrel or rabbit.

"heel" は引用符で囲まれているので普通の "heel" の意味ではないのでしょう？　辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (of a dog) follow closely behind its owner.: ‘these dogs are born with the instinctive urge to heel’
・Collins Dictionary: to follow along at the heels of someone: to teach a dog to heel
・Cambridge English Dictionary: said to a dog to order it to come and stand close to you or to walk close to your side as you walk: If you say "Heel!" to a dog, you are ordering it to walk close to you.

日本語ではなんと犬に言うのかな？

denomination

Reader's Digest 3/4月合併号の記事 'All in a Day's WORK' からの引用です。
A woman approached me at the bank wanting to buy a savings bond for her grand daughter who was being baptised. Not sure how much she wanted to spend, I asked, "What denomination?"
She replied, "Protestant."
銀行で働く女性の方は当然ながら、購入希望の "savings bond" の額面を尋ねているのに、お客の女性は孫娘の洗礼の事が頭にあり上のような頓珍漢な返事になったのですね。

fava bean

区民農園が借りれた時はいつも沢山取れて美味しいのでインゲン豆を栽培しました。最近は区民農園の抽選に当たらないので、ベランダと駐車場の脇のスペースでポットに絹さや、グリーンピース、スナップエンドウの種をまき、今は毎日収穫できているところです。(4月5月のことです。)　ちょうどReader's Digest 3/4月合併号の 'FOOD for Thought' に豆の記事がありましたので一部を紹介します。
Peas are among the oldest crops in human history, though exactly what constitute a pea is a little hard to pin down. Just about aything we call a pea--whether a garden pea, snow pea, chickpea, or peanut--grows in a pod and is a member of the larger legume family called Favaceae (generally pronounced "fuh-'bay-see-ee"). That's the same family from which fava　beans get their name. The peas we eat when fresh, green, and sweet--including garden peas, snap peas, and snow peas--are usually members of the Pisum genus. That also goes for green split peas, which tend to be sold dried rather than fresh, and are frequently cooked into soup and porridge. Other types of peas, such as chickpeas and peanuts, belong to different genera.
"fava　beans" はどんな豆か調べます。　次のの辞書と辞典には写真も掲載されていたので引用します。
・Wiktionary: An edible bean (Vicia faba) native to Africa and Southwest Asia with a long tradition of cultivation.
・Wikipedia: Vicia faba, also known in the culinary sense as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae.
これはインゲン豆ではなく、ソラマメでしょうね。

skulking animal

江戸川乱歩の短編小説 'Two Crippled Men'を読んでいます。

Still avoiding the other's piercing look, he quietly sneaked out of the room like some skulking animal.

"skulking animal" の "skulking" が分かりません。辞書を見ます。

・Dictionary.com: to move in a stealthy manner; The panther skulked through the bush.
・Collins Dictionary: If you skulk somewhere, you hide or move around quietly because you do not want to be seen.: You, meanwhile, will be skulking in the safety of the car.
・Wordnet 3.0: move stealthily: "The lonely man skulks down the main street all day"

""sculk" とも綴られる様ですが、いずれにせよ余り使われなくなった単語の様です。