getting physical

記事の引用からお読みください。


The father of a student who joined the Mile High Club with his physics teacher on an airplane says his 16-year-old son feels terrible the educator got fired, but would now like to just “move on,” according to a report.

（中略）

Eleanor Wilson, 28, was a physics teacher in the UK when she got physical with the boy in the plane’s bathroom during a July 2015 flight back from a two-week trip to Swaziland in Africa.

The hanky-panky had began earlier in the trip, when the two drank cheap whisky, the boy told his classmates.
(Yoron Steinbuch. Teen wants to move on after airplane bathroom sex with teacher. New York Post. August 2, 2017.)


教師と生徒がイケナイ関係になってしまったという、日本でも偶に報じられる類の事件です。

記事中に出てくる、


she (=teacher) got physical with the boy


というフレーズに着目します。

コンテクストから、"got physical"が「性的な関係になる"という意味は読み取れます。実際、"physical"という単語は"spiritual"（精神の）という単語の対義語として、身体の〜、肉体の〜という意味があり、さらには肉欲にふける、好色の、という意味でも用いられます。

ところで、"get physical"が常に性的な意味合いかというとそうでもなく、例えば以下の用例では暴力的なという意味合いがあると思われます。


She accused Pitt of getting physical with their eldest son, Maddox, and involved the authorities.
(Christie Z'Durilla. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are on speaking terms again, and he has a new hobby. Los Angeles Times. March 2, 2017.)


また、"(a) physical"は形容詞ではなく名詞として"physical examination"の意味となりますので、"I got a physical..."は単に健康診断を受けた、の意味となります。