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。

laxative 復習

愛知県にある中学校で生徒が給食に下剤を投入するいたずら事件がありました。

TOKYO
Junior high school students in Japan are generally well-behaved, though occasionally a few naughty ones may slip through the disciplinary system and wreak juvenile havoc.
It seems one junior high school in Owariasahi City, Aichi Prefecture ran into a nasty case recently when a female assistant teacher found her soup bowl filled to the brim with soy milk soup during school lunch. Since it was too much for her, the teacher poured half the bowl back into the huge communal container that the soup was served from.

(中略)
She felt an odd prickling sensation in her mouth after lunch, and thus proceeded to the school nurse’s office. It was there that the truth came to light: she had consumed an unknown amount of laxative.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/junior-high-school-student-laces-teacher's-lunch-with-laxative

laxative /lˈæksəṭɪv/ を取り上げます。『ジーニアス英和辞典』によると「下剤(の);通じ薬(の)」とあり、名詞と形容詞の意味で使用できることがわかります。語源はlaxare(緩める)に由来し、下剤の役割が便を排泄し易くし便秘の症状を和らげることからきています。他にも同じ語源の単語をあげると、lax「〈法律・人など〉厳しくない、手ぬるい」、relax「〈緊張力などを〉緩める」などがあります。またCambridge Dictionaryを引くと“a substance that makes it easier for the waste from someone’s bowels to come out”と定義されています。(Kiwi girl)