ripsnorter

明日から放送が開始される綾瀬はるか主演の大河ドラマ「八重の桜」。これは同志社大学の創設者，新島 襄の妻，八重の生涯を描いた作品ですが，The Japan Times Onlineでは八重という人物をa ripsnorter: a 19th-century gunslinger who was also an English speaker, a Christian-convert, a medic and a tea-ceremony master.のように説明しています。ripsnorterはもともとアメリカ英語の俗語表現で、"something which is very exciting"（Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture），つまり「ものすごいもの，わくわくさせるもの」（『新英和中辞典』研究社）という意味です。そこから転じて「ひどい乱暴者」や「すばらしい人」（『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』小学館）という意味でも用いられることがあり，八重の人物像や生涯を考慮すると，ここでは「ひどい乱暴者」と「すばらしい人」の両方を意味しているのではないでしょうか。（Koyamamoto）

NHK spotlights gunslinging daughter of the north in yearlong Sunday drama
How to rebuild when you've lost everything? In the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, as many thousands of people in northeastern Japan sought to answer that question for themselves, public broadcaster NHK began looking for a historical figure whose story might provide some inspiration — someone whose life it could depict in the 2013 edition of its yearlong Sunday-evening taiga drama series.
They came up with a ripsnorter: a 19th-century gunslinger who was also an English speaker, a Christian-convert, a medic and a tea-ceremony master. And what's more, she was also a woman.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fd20130104r1.html