sanctimonious
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer said on Saturday he hoped the firing of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe would prompt Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general overseeing the Russia investigation, to shut down the inquiry. …
“Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy,” Trump wrote. “Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!” (Skip the rest)
取り上げる語は、sanctimonious /s`æŋ(k)təmóʊniəs/ です。語の構造をみると sanctimony + -ous になると考えられます。以下で意味と語源を確認していきます。
まず意味を LDOCE をみると、“behaving as if you are morally better than other people, in a way that is annoying – used to show disapproval” とあり、Cambridge Dictionary には “acting as if morally better than others” と定義されています。また、『ウィズダム英和辞典』(三省堂書店)をみると、「(人言動が)偉そうな、道徳じみた、高尚なふりをした」とありました。
次に語源を OED でみると、“Early 17th century (in the sense ‘holy in character’): from Latin sanctimonia ‘sanctity’ (from sanctus ‘holy’) + -ous.” とありました。sanctity の語源は同書に “Late Middle English (in the sense ‘saintliness’): from Old French sainctite, reinforced by Latin sanctitas, from sanctus ‘holy’.” と記載があります。
以上のことから、sanctimonious は批判的に用いて「偉そうな」と訳をつけることができます。(OkaUchi)
