henchmen 復習
This is not an easy task. Spaniards must come to terms, for example, with the fact that Franco did not act alone and that his crimes and achievements (some economic progress, after all, was inevitable over almost four decades) were committed by a whole tranche of Spanish society, along with the dictator and his henchmen. (Skip the rest)
今回取り上げる語は、henchmen /hɛn(t)ʃmən/ です。イギリスでは hench で「筋肉むきむき」を表すと OED からわかります。では、今回の文脈ではどういった意味を持つのか以下で確認していきます。
まず意味を Cambridge Dictionary でみると、“someone who does unpleasant or illegal things for a powerful person” とあり、LDOCE には “a faithful supporter of a political leader or a criminal, who is willing to do illegal things or use violence” と定義されていました。
次に語源を OED でみると、“Middle English, from Old English hengest ‘male horse’ + man, the original sense being probably ‘groom’. In the mid 19th century the sense ‘principal attendant of a Highland chief’ was popularized by Sir Walter Scott, whence the current (originally US) usage.“ とあります。
以上のことから、henchmen は「部下、手下」という意味を持つことがわかりました。(OkaUchi)
cf. my men, all the king's men