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。

on charge of 復習

ロシア人の元スパイが病院に搬送されました。不明物体が原因だとされています。

SALISBURY, England (AP) — A former Russian spy was critically ill after exposure to an “unknown substance,” British media reported in a case that immediately drew parallels to the poisoning of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.

National and local authorities said only that a man and a woman were found unconscious Sunday afternoon on a bench in a shopping mall in Salisbury, about 145 kilometers west of London.

British media identified him as Sergei Skripal, 66, who was convicted in Russia on charges of spying for Britain and sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in prison. Skripal was freed in 2010 as part of a U.S.-Russian spy swap.
中略
Skripal was pardoned and released from custody in July 2010 as part of a U.S.-Russian-spy swap, which followed the exposure of a ring of Russian sleeper agents in the United States.

The circumstances surrounding Sunday’s incident were still murky and police urged the public not to speculate. But few could avoid invoking the name of Litvinenko — the former Russian agent who died after drinking polonium-210-laced tea in a swanky London hotel in 2006.

His illness was initially treated as unexplained; evidence eventually emerged indicating he had been deliberately poisoned with the radioactive material.
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004286170

 今回気になったのはon (the[a])charge of/ɑn tʃάɚdʒ (ə)v/です。文脈から「原因で」のような意味ではないかと予想しました。『ジーニアス英和辞典』(第四版,大修館書店)で調べてみたところ、「…の罪で,…のかどで」とありました。

またSVO1 charge with O2で「O1〈人〉をO2〈罪・失敗など〉のかどで責める,告発[告訴]する」と記載されていました。accuseよりも固い語だそうです。名詞では「非難;嫌疑, 告発,告訴」ともありました。chargeは「罪」などに関する意味では可算名詞として使われるので、そのような意味に関する熟語として使うときには気を付けたいと思います。(rain)