opine
歴史家のロバート・コンクエストに関連する記事です。彼はスターリン体制の現状を初めて明らかにしたとして，名声を得た人物です。記事の中で気になった単語は"opine"です。『Wisdom英和辞典第三版』（三省堂）によると「…だと意見[見解]を述べる, 思量する」などという意味がありました。ODには"Hold and state as one’s opinion"と定義されとります。"opinion"と"opine"が似ていると思い，語源を見ると"opinion"が"Middle English: via Old French from Latin opinio(n-), from the stem of opinari 'think, believe'"に対して"opine"は"Late Middle English: from Latin opinari 'think, believe'"のようにどちらも"opinari"という用語に由来しているようです。（Ume）
Robert Conquest: Revealing the horror of Stalin
He had the collected works of Stalin on his shelf (not obviously worn with reading). When my grandmother opined at the dinner table that there must be at least some crime in the Soviet Union, her husband told her to "stop her bloody lies".
My father remembered the relief he felt as a young boy in the mining village when Hitler turned on Stalin in 1941 and invaded the land of his former partner-in-crime. Before that, the family had feared internment. But now the Red Army suddenly became allies of Britain and communists became the most vociferous supporters of the cause. According to his son, my grandfather, a communist councillor, received extra petrol rations to tour the Valleys drumming up support for the war effort.
