covet 復習

高速道路のSAのトイレはしばしば混雑しますが、待ち時間を解消すべく工夫がなされています。

When You Have to Go, Japanese Rest Stops Won’t Keep You Waiting

The kids are hungry, the driver has a headache and everyone has to go to the bathroom. If you’re traveling by car on a holiday weekend, the last thing you want to find at a roadside rest stop is a long line for a toilet.

Companies that run major highway service plazas in Japan go to considerable lengths to ensure you never will, as they compete for the coveted Japan Toilet Award from the transportation ministry.

Nexco Central Nippon Expressway, which runs 200 of the rest stops, promises that patrons should never have to wait more than two minutes to use the lavatory. The company’s award-winning Neopasa Shimizu stop, one of several near Shizuoka City, about 15 miles from Mount Fuji, shows how.

To keep things moving at Neopasa Shimizu, where 25,000 people may stop on a busy weekend, there are 72 stalls in the ladies’ room, compared with 14 stalls and 32 urinals in the men’s — a ratio meant to combat the longer waits that women often encounter in public facilities.

Technology is put to work, too. A sensor in each stall detects whether it is in use, and relays that information to a large monitor screen mounted outside the restroom. Small icons even indicate whether the available toilets are the Western sitting style or the traditional Japanese squatting style.

Of course, those who find these elaborate status panels too confusing can always just walk up and down the stalls, looking for an unlocked door.

今回取り上げる表現は、“covet”です。『ウィズダム英和辞典』(第３版、三省堂)では、「〈他人の物など〉を強く[むやみに]欲しがる、熱望する(desire)」とありました。

LDOCEでは、“to have a very strong desire to have something that someone else has”と定義されていました。

「コトバンク」では、ラテン語の“cupiditare” (cupidus切望している＋-are不定詞語尾）が語源であると述べられていました。裏ゼミのプリントでやった“cupidity”「貪欲、強欲」の語源でもあるそうです。(Blue Sky)