truce 復習

　A North Korean soldier who was shot at least five times while defecting to the South has regained consciousness.
　The soldier asked to watch television and is being shown South Korean films, Yonhap news agency reports.
　"We believe the most life-threatening moment has now passed," a government official told the agency.
　The soldier made his escape over the demilitarised border last week and was shot at more than 40 times before reaching safety, the South says.
　Medical staff say that he is traumatised from his ordeal.
　"To provide psychological stability a South Korean flag has been placed hanging on the hospital room wall," the government official told Yonhap. …
　About 1,000 people from the North flee to the South each year - but very few defect via the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which is one of the world's most heavily guarded strips of land.
　It is even more unusual for North Koreans to cross at the JSA, which is a tourist attraction, and the only portion of the DMZ where both forces stand face-to-face.
　North and South Korea are technically still at war, since the conflict between them ended in 1953 with a truce and not a formal peace treaty. (Skip the rest)

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42068429

　今回取り上げる語は、truce /trúːs/ です。
　まず意味を確認します。『ジーニアス英和大辞典』(大修館)をみると、「(1)(通例一時的な)休戦、停戦;休戦協定、(2)(苦痛・苦難・口論などの)休止、中断」とあります。(1)の類語として、cease-fire や、armistice が挙げられます。
　次に語源を確認します。Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd Edition Revised)をみると、“Middle English trewes, trues (plural), from Old English trēowa, plural of trēow ‘belief, trust’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch trouw and German Treue, also to true” とありました。上記から、この語の語源は「信頼」であり、true と同じところから来ていることがわかります。
　最後に表現の確認です。この語を使った表現として、Truce of God があります。『新英和大辞典』(第六版、研究社)をみると、「神の休戦」を意味し、「中世の教会が特定の曜日および祝日に戦闘・私闘の中止を命じた」ことを言います。大学受験の世界史などに出てくると思います。ぜひ、確認してみてください。(OkaUchi)