tributary
As Europe Wrangles Over Migrant Relocation, Reality Moves Faster
PIRAEUS, Greece — Amid the rancorous bickering this week by European leaders over a relocation plan to spread asylum seekers around the Continent, a Coast Guard officer stood on the dock here at Greece’s main port screaming a blunt command at a throng of rain-soaked new arrivals: Hurry up and relocate yourselves.
“Get out of here. Get on the bus! Go, go, go,” the officer shouted, ordering another shipload of Afghans, Syrians, Iraqis and others who had just been ferried from outlying Greek islands to keep moving to wherever it is in Europe they want to go.
The scene at Piraeus underscored the huge distance between decisions made in the conference rooms of Brussels and the often chaotic realities on the ground for a refugee crisis that keeps thwarting promises of a “European solution.”
This sprawling port southwest of Athens is where many of the various tributaries carrying desperate people fleeing war and poverty converge to form an unstoppable human river flowing northward, usually to Germany or Sweden.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/world/europe/as-europe-wrangles-over-migrant-relocation-reality-moves-faster.html
記事で気になった表現は “tributary”です。G4（大修館）で意味を確認してみますと名詞で「(川の)支流」とありました。加えて形容詞として「（1）[…の]支流の、支線の[to]、（2）《正式》〈国家・支配者などが〉貢物を納める[求められる]；[…の]属国の[to]」という意味もありました。LDOCEでは “a stream or river that flows into a large river”と書かれています。
この“tributary”は ラテン語で「分配した物、授けた物、与えた物」を意味する”tributum”（原義は三分割）が語源である“tribute”に、「…に関する、…の；…に関係する人」を表す接尾辞の “-ary”が結びついてできた表現になります。（Inaho）
