alloy

　日本刀に魅力を感じる人が増えているようです。

Japanese swords carve out larger fanbase

More and more people are being drawn to the wonder of Japanese swords, with a sizable number actually wanting to hold one in their hands. What is it about Japanese swords that ensnares the hearts of people today? I love samurai TV dramas myself and took a look into the mystery.

At a dojo training center I visited, several men and women in hakama skirts were swinging mock Japanese swords through the air in complete silence. Only the sound of the blades parting the air could be heard.

It was part of a training session for battojutsu — the martial art of quickly and skillfully drawing a Japanese sword — held at HiSUi Tokyo in Tokyo’s Ginza district. HiSUi Tokyo is a school where visitors can learn traditional Japanese culture, including the sado tea ceremony and shodo calligraphy.

Sword training begins with learning the form for cutting the air with fake Japanese swords, which have blades made of aluminum alloy. The trainees repeated the same moves many times. After that, they tried real swords.

以下省略

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003789021

alloy /ˈælɔɪ/ を取り上げます。allという語が隠れているように感じられますが、どのような意味なのでしょうか。『ライトハウス英和辞典』（第5版　研究社）で調べると、名詞では「合金（of）、混ぜ物」動詞では「合金にする（with）」といった意味であることがわかりました。記事の内容に述べられている “aluminum alloy” は「アルミニウム合金」をさしています。

　LDOCEには “a metal that consists of two or more metals mixed together” や “to mix one metal with another” と定義されています。

　語源を調べると、Online Etymology Dictionaryには “c. 1400, "mix (a metal) with a baser metal," from Old French aloiier, aliier "assemble, join," from Latin alligare "bind to, tie to” とあり、フランス語系統の言葉で、集める、結びつけるなどの意味を表す語がもとになっていることがわかりました。（aqua）

cf. クルマのホイールはalloyに移行しているそうです。