皮むき ― scalpel

外科手術のナイフのことをよく“メス”と表現します。実は“メス”（mes）はオランダ語の"mes"（ナイフの意）に由来する表現で英語では通じません。英語では、"scalpel"、もしくは"lancet"という単語が使われます。

下記の引用は、整形手術で一体どれくらい若く見せられるのか、という話題なのですが、


"exactly how many years a person can expect to shed under the scalpel"


という部分が言い得て妙ではないでしょうか。



Most middle-aged people who get face-lifts and other cosmetic surgery do so because they want to look younger. But since youth is partly in the eye of the beholder, it’s difficult to measure whether a procedure successfully turns back the clock, and by how much.

In a new study, a team of plastic surgeons set out to pin down exactly how many years a person can expect to shed under the scalpel. The surgeons asked medical students to estimate the ages of patients in before-and-after pictures, and the results suggest that facial surgery reduces a person’s outward age by about six to eight years, depending on the extent of the procedure.

The study, which was published online Monday in the journal Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, was designed to fill a gap in the information available to prospective patients, says lead author Dr. Nitin Chauhan, a plastic surgeon at the University of Toronto.
(Matt McMillen. How Much Younger Does a Face Lift Make You Look? Time. February 21, 2012.)


上述しましたように、"scalpel"は日本語で言うところの“メス”なのですが、語源を辿るとラテン語の"scalpellum"、こすったり、皮をむくための道具という意味の単語に由来しています。

整形手術に使われるメスが実は“皮をむくための道具”というのはなんだか皮肉な感じもしますが、これほど本質を言い当てている単語も無いかも知れません。