swaths of 復習
言葉というは時代の流れに沿って変わるものです。今回取り上げるNYTの記事では”Mx.”という単語が登場しています。”Mx.” は“mix”と発音され、”a gender-neutral alternative to Ms. and Mr.”であると説明されています。
気になった表現は”swaths of”です。”swath”は少し前にブログで取り上げられているように、「（大がま・草刈り機の）一刈りの幅[面積]；刈り跡」という意味があります。http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/searchdiary?word=swath&.submit=%B8%A1%BA%F7&type=detail
しかし今回は第３語義である「多数の人[物]、大部分の地域」（『ジーニアス英和辞典第４版（大修館書店）』）という意味で使われています。
“swaths of”と聞くと芝刈り機で刈られた土地とともに広大な様子が思い浮かびます。とてもアメリカらしい規模を示す表現であると感じました。(bookmark)
Sometimes cultural shifts rumble at a glacial pace. Sometimes they gather momentum so quickly that our language can only surge ahead in an effort to catch up. Think selfie, or vape, or normcore.
Next up may be Mx. (pronounced mix), a gender-neutral alternative to Ms. and Mr.
Online discussion of Mx. grew clamorous in the last month after an array of media outlets reported with more excitement than hard facts that editors of the prestigious Oxford English
Dictionary had announced its consideration to add the Mx. title.
Like so many pebbles of cultural news that ripple across the Internet, that one was only sort of accurate. The actual story is a bit less dramatic: A representative of the Oxford University
Press, which publishes a range of periodicals, including the OED, was contacted by someone asking whether Mx. might be added to the mix. The answer was yes, it is being considered by one of the publisher’s online lexicons, OxfordDictionaries.com.
But the fervor with which the cultural discussion grew underscored perhaps a greater truth: Swaths of Americans are comfortable with new considerations of gender and of the importance (or lack thereof) of identifying a specific gender, and they would welcome new words to help communicate in a new world.
PS すでに記述がありました。すみません。
