armpit 復習
夏の暑い日に大活躍するかもしれません。
Who Needs Deodorant When You Have a Japanese Armpit Fan?
With summers getting hotter every year, keeping your armpits dry is quite the challenge. While many of use still rely on deodorants, the quirky Japanese have come up with a high-tech alternative worthy of their reputation for crazy inventions – clip-on armpit fans.
Developed by Japanese gadget maker Thanko, the Waki no Shita Kura (Japanese for Under the Armpit Cooling Device) is a small fan that clips to your sleeve to deliver cooling blasts of air to your armpits. The device is powered by three AAA batteries and can keep your armpits nice and dry for five to nine hours, depending on which of the three speeds you use. If you want to stay cool for longer you can connect the fan to your PC or a separately purchased battery pack with the included micro USB cable. Thanko claims the armpit fans are very light (30g/1 oz) and silent enough to use even in a crowded, so you shouldn’t have to worry about attracting unwanted attention with your buzzing armpits. The fan is also very small (60 x 65 x 15mm) and thanks to the clip-on design it can also cool your chest area: just clip it to the front of your shirt and it will keep your torso and neck dry.
（以下省略）
http://www.odditycentral.com/funny/who-needs-deodorant-when-you-have-a-japanese-armpit-fan.html
今回取り上げる単語はarmpitです。「脇の下」という意味だと思うのですが、今まで知らなかったので念のため調べてみることにしました。
Oxford Dictionary of English (Second Edition Reserved, Oxford University Press)によると、 “a hollow under the arm at the shoulder”とのことでした。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版，大修館）で調べたところ、「わきの下」の他にもアメリカ英語で「不快な[汚い]場所」という意味があることが分かりました。
少し話がそれてしまうのですが、「みぞおち」のことを英語でpitを使って表現していたことを思い出したので同じ辞書で調べてみると、 “the pit of one’s stomach”で「みぞおちのあたり」と載っておりました。(Gomez)
