Ho-bese

Many Santas are Now Ho Ho Ho-bese

Adele Saidy, owner of Adele’s of Hollywood, has been designing custom Santa suits for St. Nick stand-ins all over the world for more than four decades. She’s seen some big changes to the seasonal costumes.

Big changes.

“They are getting larger and larger,” she said. “Last year and this year, 25 percent of my Santas — oh, I don’t want to say it — they are really overweight.”

When Adele started out, the roomiest Santa suit she sold was designed to fit someone who weighed between 200 and 275 pounds with a girth of about 50 inches. Now, she notes, very few of her customers need any extra padding to pull off the fat and jolly look.

The largest size she made this season fits someone who is 300 to 425 pounds and up to a 76 inch girth. She filled six such supersized orders.

Other Santa suit sellers are noticing the same trend.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/12/21/many-santas-are-now-ho-ho-ho-bese/

今回は見出しのHo-beseに注目してみたいと思います。Ho-beseや、beseを手持ちの辞書で調べてみましたが、記載がありませんでした。(『ジーニアス英和辞典　第４版』大修館書店)

そこでUrban Dictionaryで検索してみると、やはりHo-beseについての記載はなかったのですが、代わりにoh-beseについての記載を見つけました。ho-beseは、Someone so fat, it's shocking. Beyond obese.と定義されています。cf.http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bese

記事内容から、oh-beseはサンタクロース特有のHo Ho Hoというかけ声とobeseをかけたものであると考えました。つまり、この見出しは、今多くのサンタがとても太っている、と訳せると思います。（Jakie）