tongue in cheek 復習
Summing up the national mood, Gary Lineker made a tongue-in-cheek-apology to “non-English football fans” and tweeted: “Football’s coming home is a fun song highlighting the lack of success of our football team for decades. No one really thought we’d win it. I totally get why you might think it was arrogance, but it’s more our self-deprecatory sense of humour.”
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/15/footballers-coming-home-no-fanfare
取り上げるのはtongue in cheekです。そのまま訳すと「頰に舌」となりますがどのような意味になるのでしょうか。『ジーニアス英和辞典』で確認すると「ふざけた;皮肉な(本心とは裏腹の)」とありました。つまり、口の中で頰に舌を入れてふくらませることが侮辱のジェスチャーを表すことからきていることがわかります。Cambridge Dictionaryでは“If you say something tongue in cheek, you intend it to be understood as a joke, although you might appear to be serious”と定義されています。(Kiwi girl)
