hauteur 復習
Over the fireplace at Mingo Creek Craft Distillers, a whiskey purveyor in the small town of Washington, Pennsylvania, a portrait of Alexander Hamilton hangs upside down. With snowy hair and a black velvet jacket, Hamilton wears an impassive look that might be described as hauteur. In 1791, to pay off debts the newly formed United States incurred during the revolutionary war, Hamilton imposed the first federal tax on the people of the region. By taxing their most lucrative product, whiskey, he became what he is here today: a villain representing the excesses of the federal government. (Skip the rest)
今回取り上げる語は、hauteur /əʊˈtəː/ です。文脈から悪いイメージを持つことがわかりました。意味等を以下で確認していきます。
まず意味を Cambridge Dictionary でみると、“a formal and unfriendly way of behaving that suggests that the person thinks they are better than other people
“ とあり、LDOCE には “a proud, very unfriendly manner” と定義されていました。
次に語源を ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY でみると、“"a haughty bearing, arrogance of manner," 1620s, from French hauteur "haughtiness, arrogance," literally "height," from Old French hauture "height, loftiness; grandeur, majesty" (12c.), from haut (see haught).” とあります。
以上のことから、hauteur は「(非難して)傲慢」という意味だとわかりました。(OkaUchi)
