largesse
今年で第58回を迎える、歴史ある「日本レコード大賞」に買収疑惑が浮上しています。
Is Japanese pop music losing its relevance?
Shukan Bunshun recently ran some articles describing how last year the talent management company LDH allegedly paid entertainment behemoth Burning Productions to ensure that one of LDH’s acts would win the top prize at the 2015 Japan Record Awards (JRA). Accompanying one of the articles was a photo of an invoice on Burning stationery showing that LDH owed it \108 million for “end-of-year business promotion expenses.”
LDH manages the all-male R&B collective Exile and its side projects, one of which, Sandaime J Soul Brothers, was the subject of LDH’s under-the-radar largesse and won the JRA last year. They also won it the year before, and their senpai (senior) group, Exile, won it in 2008, 2010 and 2013.
今回取り上げるのは、“largesse”という表現です。この単語をLDOCEで調べてみると、“when someone gives money or gifts to people who have less than they do, or the money or gifts that they give”と定義されていました。次に『ジーニアス英和辞典』(大修館書店)には、「気前よく与えること、(気前のよい)贈り物〔施し物〕」といった意味が記載されていました。“largesse”の表記に“large”が隠れていることから、「気前の良さ、寛大さ」
が意味合いに含まれると分かります。(ninetails)
