体の部位に関する表現（１）＝hair ― not turn a hair

以前に体の部位に関する表現ということで、肩（shoulder）が出てくる成句を特集しましたが、今週は”髪の毛、体毛”（hair）が出てくる表現を特集したいと思います。

初日の今日は、"not turn a hair"という成句を取り上げますが、ご存知でしょうか？

字義どおりに解釈すれば、


髪の毛一本（すら）動かさない


ということになります。つまり、動揺しない、動じない、という意味で使われます。


His men were so accustomed to his rages that they never turned a hair.
(Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms. 1995.)


一見していただければ分かる通り、"not"とありますから否定文で使われる表現です。


Three hours before he sat down with The Telegraph, with the opening ceremony of the 30th Olympiad days away, security contractor G4S revealed to Coe’s chief executive, Paul Deighton, that they were short of about 7,000 security guards.

As pre-Games crises go it was not quite on the Athens scale, but it was up there. Coe barely seemed to turn a hair. “I’m feeling great. I think I’m pretty relaxed. And I’m excited,” he says.
(Paul Kelso. London 2012 Olympics: Lord Coe ready for the off as he says 'every ingredient is in place. But we now have to nail it'. The Telegraph. July 30, 2012.)


今週のテーマにご期待下さい。