snout-nosed 復習
My daughter was clearing her room recently and threw out something I gave her many years ago. “You can’t throw this away,” I said when I saw a Clanger in the pile. It didn’t mean much to her, but to me? Well, like Bagpuss, it is Proustian, this little, pink, snout-nosed thing. Peter Firmin, who created these creatures, has died. The Clangers lived on another planet and ate green soup made by the soup dragon. They spoke only in whistles. Music grew on trees. They lived with Froglet and Glow Buzzers. I loved the loneliness of these strange worlds. Some say children’s TV was made in those days by people who had taken too much acid. Maybe so. But I say keep your CGI; this is real magic. (OkaUchi)
今回取り上げる表現は、snout-nosed です。snout の発音は /snaʊt/ になります。この語にどういう意味があるのか気になったので、以下で確認していきます。
まず LDOCE でみると、“the long nose of some kinds of animals, such as pigs” “British English informal a criminal who gives information about other criminals to the police” とあり、OED には “British informal A cigarette” “British informal A police informer” と定義されていました。
次に語源を OED で見ると、“Middle English: from Middle Dutch, Middle Low German snūt; related to snot.” とありました。
以上のことから、snout-nosed は「豚鼻の」という意味を持ち、snout には「(豚の)鼻」から派生して 「たばこ」や「警察への密告者」等の意味もあることがわかりました。(OkaUchi)
