blemish 復習

ニューヨーク州北部で、車の中で年配の女性が凍死しているという通報がありましたが、実際はマネキンだった、という不思議な事件の記事からです。

Police Rescue 'Frozen' Elderly Woman, Only to Discover It's a Mannequin

Police in the upstate New York city of Hudson smashed a car window Friday morning, believing they were valiant heroes rescuing a senior citizen whom a passerby said had "frozen to death."

The Hudson Police Department said in a press release that it "received a call from a very upset citizen who stated that she discovered an elderly woman 'frozen to death' in her Subaru parked along City Hall Place, Hudson. Officers, and the Greenport Rescue Squad were immediately dispatched."

The press release continues, "Officers arrived minutes later and observed an elderly woman seated in the passenger seat wearing an oxygen mask. She was not moving and was unresponsive. It was bitterly cold, (around 8 degrees) and the car had snow cover, indicating it may have been parked there overnight."

But officers quickly determined that the oxygen mask-wearing woman was not dead, nor was she frozen. In fact, she wasn't even a woman.

"An HPD Sergeant broke the rear passenger window and opened the door to discover it was an extremely realistic life-sized mannequin," according to the press release.

The mannequin wore clothing and glasses, and had teeth, skin and blemishes on its face.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-break-car-window-rescue-frozen-woman-discover/story?id=44252757

今回取り上げる単語は"blemish"です。

まず、LDOCEで調べてみると、"a small mark, especially a mark on someone’s skin or on the surface of an object, that spoils its appearance"とありました。

また、『ジーニアス英和辞典』第4版(大修館)で確認してみると、「(名声、美しさなどを損なう)(…の)(小さな)欠点、汚点」や「(…の表面の)汚れ、しみ、(遠回しに)にきび、吹き出物」という意味が載っていました。

したがってここでは、「マネキンは服を着てメガネをかけており、顔には歯、肌、しみがあった」となるかと思います。(Akim)

picking up where he left off two decades ago - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から