incremental 復習
Two sharply contrasting sentences were handed down recently by Israeli courts.
In the first case a teenage Palestinian girl, Ahed Tamimi, was accused of slapping an Israeli soldier. Although she caused the soldier no physical harm, her assault was regarded by the Israeli military court that tried her behind closed doors as warranting incarceration for eight months. …
Another feature of many of these cases – before both the civil and military courts – is how the proceedings can be dragged out for years with the severity of the charges often being incrementally reduced by successive negotiations over plea bargains whose aim appears to be the delivery of the lightest sentences. (Skip the rest)
今回取り上げる語は、incremental /ìŋkrəménṭl/ です。記事の中では incrementally と副詞の形で使われており、“…being incrementally reduced by successive negotiations…” の箇所は「…継続的な交渉により定期的に減らされている…」と推測しました。以下で意味等を確認していきます。
まず意味を Cambridge Dictionary でみると、“in a series of amounts” とあり、LDOCE には “increasing in amount or value gradually and by a regular amount” と定義されていました。
次に語源を OED でみると、“Early 18th century: from increment + -al.” とあり、increment には “Late Middle English: from Latin incrementum, from the stem of increscere ‘grow’.” とありました。
以上のことから、incremental は「定期的に増加する」という意味を持ち、語源は growと関係を持つことがわかりました。(OkaUchi)
