New York minute

今日取り上げる表現、


New York minute


に出てくるNew Yorkは国名ではなく都市名ですが、興味深い表現です。

都会に暮らす人は歩くのが速い、とよく言われます。祖父母から昔、大阪や東京の人は歩くのが速い、と言われました。

New York minuteを辞書で引くと、


a very short amount of time; instant, flash
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)


とあります。


Midweek, San Francisco on the edge of spring. A beautiful day, if you have time to notice.

The 11 o’clock meeting started late and it went on longer than expected, and now you are late meeting a pal for lunch in the Financial District. No cabs, no Uber either, so you duck into the Muni Metro subway, just catch an inbound car, hustle up the steps at the Montgomery Station, take the wrong exit, hustle up Sansome Street, up to Montgomery, making all the green lights, moving as fast as you can go.

Then you notice: Everyone else is walking as fast as you are, fast as a New York minute. Everybody looks like they are late for something. How can that be? Everybody is laid back here on the Left Coast. That’s what they say in New York anyway.
(Carl Nolte. A splendid city — but who even has a minute to notice? San Francisco Chronicle. February 15, 2015.)


アメリカのニューヨークは言うまでもなく大都会ですが、ニューヨークの1分は田舎の1秒！？なのかも知れません。