eminence 復習
ソウルの女王と呼ばれたアレサ・フランクリンさんが、膵臓がんのため16日に亡くなりました。
The ‘Queen of Soul’ Aretha Franklin dies
Aretha Franklin, the undisputed “Queen of Soul” who sang with matchless style on such classics as “Think,” “I Say a Little Prayer” and her signature song, “Respect,” and stood as a cultural icon around the globe, has died from pancreatic cancer. She was 76.
Publicist Gwendolyn Quinn told The Associated Press through a family statement that Franklin died Thursday at 9:50 a.m. at her home in Detroit.
A professional singer and pianist by her late teens, a superstar by her mid-20s, Franklin had long ago settled any arguments over who was the greatest popular vocalist of her time. Her gifts, natural and acquired, were a multi-octave mezzo-soprano, gospel passion and training worthy of a preacher’s daughter, taste sophisticated and eccentric, and the courage to channel private pain into liberating song.
中略
Fellow singers bowed to her eminence and political and civic leaders treated her as a peer. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a longtime friend, and she sang at the dedication of King’s memorial in 2011. She performed at the inaugurations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, and at the funeral for civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. Clinton gave Franklin the National Medal of Arts. President George W. Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
以下省略
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004666948
eminence /émənəns/ を取り上げます。Fellow singers bowed to her eminenceとあることから、「才能」や「功績」などの意味になるのではないかと思いました。『ライトハウス英和辞典』（第5版 研究社）で調べると「（地位、身分などの）高いこと、高位；（特に科学、芸術面の）著名」とありました。
LDOCEには “the quality of being famous and important” と定義されています。
語源はgoo辞書によると、「ラテン語 ēminentia」と説明されており、これは「突き出る、目立つ」という意味をもつēminēreからきているとのことでした。（aqua）
