常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

epithet

過激な発言が注目されるフィリピンのドュテルテ大統領ですが、日本から帰路で、もう暴言は吐かないと神に誓ったそうです。

Duterte: God warned me about cursing

MANILA (Reuters) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has promised to stop swearing, saying God spoke to him on a flight from Japan on Thursday, warning him the plane would crash if he kept using bad language.
The maverick former mayor, famous for profanity that has included outbursts aimed at Pope Francis and U.S. President Barack Obama, said he heard a voice and realized it was God, telling him to clean up his act.
“I was looking at the skies while I was coming over here ... everybody was asleep, snoring, but a voice said that, ‘you know, if you don’t stop epithets, I will bring this plane down now,’” Duterte said at a news conference late on Thursday upon arrival in his home city of Davao.
“And I said, ‘who is this?’ So, of course, it’s God. OK.
“So, I promise God ... not to express slang, cuss words and everything.”
Duterte, a former outspoken city mayor, emerged as a brash, crass, alternative candidate in a May election, which he won by a big margin, owing much to his earthy style and promises to tackle problems important to ordinary people, like drugs and crime.
He has called Obama a “son of a bitch” and chose the same words when criticizing the pope. It was not the first time Duterte has spoken of his connection with God, whom he said had made him president.

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003315707

今回取り上げるのはepithetです。

ジーニアス英和辞典』(第五版、大修館書店)では「1.(人・物の特性を表す)形容語 2.ののしり言葉、口汚い言葉」とありました。ここでは、2の意味で使われています。

Oxford dictionaries.com.でも“An epithet used as term of abuse.”という定義がありました。

しかし、神に誓ったことは国民に対してなので、米国や欧州連合へ暴言を吐かないかはタイミングによる、とのことです。(flyingbird)