almosts

ニューヨークの各スポーツチームの２０１５年は「year of almosts」となったそうです。

Good morning on this dripping Tuesday.

For many New York sports teams, it was a year of almosts.

They almost won the championship, almost made it to the finals, or almost didn’t completely break their fans’s hearts.

The Mets got us all to believe, making the World Series for the first time in 15 years, a joyous ending to a regular season full of fits and starts.

They lost to the Kansas City Royals in five games — a disheartening end on the road to redemption.

The Rangers promised us glory, even it came at the cost of nails bitten, coming back from a 3–1 deficit (for the second time).

以下省略

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/nyregion/new-york-today-the-year-in-sports.html?WT.mc_id=nytoday-redirect&_r=0

almostは副詞でおなじみですが、ここはyear of almostsと名詞で用いられています。この用法で調べてみますと、『ランダムハウス大英和』に「名　(the almost) (米俗) ほぼ最高のもの（人）」という定義がありました。つまり野球も、バスケも、フットボールももう一歩の連続だったわけですね。このように「あと少し」を「ほぼ最高のもの」と置き換えるポジティブな発想はアメリカならのものなんでしょうか。(Nao)