love-rat
アメリカ大統領選に目が離せません。選挙に関して，筆者の意見がのべられています。
This US election is a Netflix drama. No wonder we’re binge-watching it
Oh, come on, you’d have said, if the 2016 election were a TV show. These writers are jokers, and this script has all the subtlety of a napalm enema. There are just days to go before the season finale, and the election is suddenly waylaid by an FBI investigation into Anthony Weiner’s weiner? Which follows a scandal about Trump grabbing women “by the pussy” ignited by Billy Bush? Really? This is supposed to be empowering political drama, not pornographic pantomime. Not that the hair and makeup departments seem to have got that memo, of course. They’ve given the Donald way too much bronzer – and what’s with that ridiculous hair? He’s a Republican, not a Whig. I’m turning this rubbish off.
What will the Donald say next? What amazing trick for creamy risotto will WikiLeaks expose in the next email dump? Was Hillary Clinton born in Kenya to lesbian lovers who started Isis? What’s Huma going to do about love-rat Weiner? Find out in the next episode of Election 2016. Which will autoplay in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 …
今回取り上げる表現は，“love-rat”です。どのような意味か確認してみると，『ジーニアス英和辞典』（大修館書店）には，「愛人のいる男性」≪新聞用語≫と記載されていました。このような意味があるのは想像できませんでした。さらに，Cambridge Dictionaryを引いてみると，“a man who has had a secret sexual relationship with someone he is not married to or who is not his regular sexual partner.”と定義されています。結婚していない，またはセックスレスの男性であることが分かります。
ではなぜこのような意味になったのでしょうか。調べてみましたが，1990年代に新聞で使われたのが最初であることしか分かりませんでした。(Nao)
