the bottom of the barrel

気がつくともう大晦日です。本年もえいご1日1語をご愛読ありがとうございました。来年もどうぞよろしくお願い致します。

今日取り上げる表現は、（特にこの日、つまり大晦日に因んでということでは全くないので恐縮ですが・・・）


the bottom of barrel


という表現ですが、見慣れない表現ではないでしょうか？

Time Warner Cable and the Long Island Power Authority are among the most despised companies in America, scoring remarkably low customer-service ratings according to a consumer study.

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based American Consumer Satisfaction Index measures customer satisfaction of hundreds of companies and found TWC and LIPA to be bottom of the barrel.
(David K. Li. Time Warner Cable, LIPA rank among most despised companies in US. New York Post. December 30, 2013.)


辞書にも載っていない表現のようですが、イディオムの専門辞書にはエントリがあるようです。


the location of persons or things of the very lowest quality; someone or something of the lowest quality.
(McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs)


樽一杯のリンゴがある場合、底の方は押し潰されてしまっているからという補足がありますが、なるほど確かにそうかも知れませんね。

下記にもう1つ用例を挙げます。


Lake's student achievement has been among the worst in the district over the past three years. At a meeting recently in Lake's cafeteria, a group of parents sat with DPS liaisons who were explaining the school's chronic problems and DPS's turnaround strategies. "This is sad," said John Garcia, who brings his daughter to the school every day from Brighton. "If we are at the bottom of the barrel, we need to change it and focus on how to get better."
(Denver Post. 2009.)


コーパスを見ていますと、be動詞と共に用いられているケースがほとんどですが、"scrape"という動詞と共に用いられているケースも次いで多いようです。


Economically and industrially, Germany has scraped the bottom of the barrel, and there are few shops with anything to sell.
(Foreign Affairs. 2003.)

namesake

"namesake"という表現（単語）があります。分かっていたような気でいたのですが、意外と分かっていなかったようで記事を読んでいてつまづきました。


It’s almost New Year’s Eve. Do you know where your hangover cure is?

A young New York pharmacist, Stanley George, is creating buzz with a namesake pharmacy on the Lower East Side that fills prescriptions and also offers a wellness bar with his trademarked “Drinks & Drugs” menu.
(Julie Earle-Levine. NYC pharmacy will cure your hangover. New York Post. December 28, 2013.)


上の引用で、"a namesake pharmacy"と出てくる部分ですが、何のことかお分かりでしょうか？

"namesake"を辞書で引くと、


同名の人（もの）


という定義が載っているかと思います。エントリは名詞ですが、上の用例では形容詞のように見えます。

実際ここでは、（記事に出てくるStanley Georgeという人と）同名の薬局、ということで、オーナーの名前が薬局の名前になっているものなのです。

他の用例を見て見ましょう。


The longer-term members of the Washington group credit the local spirit of community to Jean-Louis Palladin, the two-star French chef who came to Washington in 1979. Cooking at his namesake restaurant in the Watergate Hotel, he welcomed aspiring chefs to his kitchen.
(The Washington Post. 2005.)


The Elwha Trail follows its namesake river for 27 cushy miles to Elwha Basin, in the heart of Washington's Olympic National Park.
(Backpacker. 2001.)


これらの用例を見ると、固有名詞がまず出てきて、続く文脈において、


one's namesake [名詞]


となるのが"namesake"を使った表現のパターンであると考えることができます。（もちろんこの用法に限られるという訳ではありませんが・・。）

このパターンは上述したように、名詞というよりも形容詞的な用法と思うのですが、辞書に載っていないのが不思議です。

heebie jeebies

久しぶりにreduplicativeを取り上げます。


Rachel Rosenblum, a self-described germophobe, cringes when her young daughters touch the saliva-coated toys that belong to Mrs. Pickles, the San Francisco family's pug-Chihuahua mix, who runs freely between the house and backyard every day.

But her husband, Michael, an immunologist, firmly believes that exposing the girls - 9-month-old Fiona and 3-year-old Marion - to dirt, pet dander and germs is fine because it helps build up their immune systems.

Rachel Rosenblum says she's resigned to it.

"I'm so squeamish about it," said the 33-year-old mother and public relations manager for an eco-friendly cleaning products company. "I'm getting better, but when the dog comes up and licks the baby's face right after she's eaten, that just gives me the heebie-jeebies."
(The San Francisco Chronicle. December 24, 2013.)


ペットと生活する子供の免疫力は高い、という報告があるらしいですが、本当でしょうか？

多くの人がペットに媒介されるノミやダニを気にするのではないかと思います。

ましてや赤ちゃんのいるような家庭ではお母さんの悲鳴が聞こえてきそうです。

"heebie jeebies"を辞書で引くと、


jitters, creeps


と出てきます。虫酸が走るような気持ち悪さというわけです。

この表現は、漫画家のBilly DeBeck (1890-1942)による造語だということです。

コイではない ― carp

"carp"と言うと、広島カープ！？ではありませんが、魚のコイ（鯉）のことかと思いますが、実は違う意味の英単語もあることを知りました。


Thousands of holiday gifts won't arrive by Christmas after an unpredictably large number of packages overwhelmed UPS, the world's largest package delivery service.

"The volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network, as demand was much greater than the forecast," UPS spokeswoman Natalie Godwin said Tuesday. "As a a result a small percentage of shipments are delayed and will not be delivered today."

Godwin would not say how many packages had been delayed, but the delays are nationwide.

UPS drivers will deliver packages on Christmas Eve, but will not deliver on Christmas Day. Workers at the company's Louisville hub will work on Wednesday night to sort packages so they can be delivered on Thursday. she said.

"We are using every available resource to get packages delivered," she said.

Customers hit by delays carped online and posted their tracking details on Twitter.
(Donna Leinwand Leger. UPS system overload delays holiday packages. USA Today. December 24, 2013.)


クリスマスの贈り物を郵送する人も多いかと思いますが、アメリカの大手UPSでは配送システムが多すぎる注文を処理できず、配達遅れが生じているそうです。

引用の最後の部分に出てくる"carp"は、


文句を言う


という意味の動詞です。

今日はクリスマス。 ― kissing under the mistletoe

言われなくても分かっていますと言われそうですが、今日は12月25日、クリスマスです。

もはや商業イベントと化したクリスマスについて色々と批判的な見方をしてみても仕方がありませんが、この時期の色々な慣習について思いを馳せることは意義のあることだろうと思います。

"mistletoe"は、ヤドリギという植物ですが、ヤドリギの下では異性がキスすることを許されるという言い伝え（慣習）があるということをご存知でしたか？


Christmas is a time for stealing kisses under the mistletoe. In Shanghai this weekend, the city’s increasingly visible gay and lesbian community seized the festive season to use their lips to make their own holiday statement.

More than one hundred supporters of China’s fledgling gay and lesbian community braved the cold to cheer on young Chinese gay men and women as they stole kisses under a Christmas tree Saturday night.

“I think it’s good we can gather together like this,” said Otto Zhu, 22 years old, a participant at the event at fashionable pedestrian shopping and dining area Xintiandi. “It makes us feel we have the power to do whatever we want.”

While attitudes are slowly changing, many Chinese still take a conservative view of homosexuality. Even many among the younger generation feel compelled to keep their sexual orientation secret. The pressure to remain in the closet, marry and have a family can be enormous.
(A Statement Under the Mistletoe for China’s LGBT Community. The Wall Street Journal. December 23, 2013.)


引用記事では“異性”ならぬ、“同性”の話題になってしまいましたが、"kissing under the mistletoe"の由来は北欧神話に遡るようです。


Why do we pucker up under this parasitic plant?

One story of mistletoe's beginnings comes from Norse mythology: The god Baldur was certain that Earth's plants and animals wanted to kill him, so his mother and wife negotiated with every living thing to leave Baldur alone. But mistletoe was the one plant his wife and mother overlooked, and, ultimately, Baldur was killed with an arrow made from the plant. "We kiss beneath it to remember what Baldur's wife and mother forgot," writes biologist Rob Dunn in Smithsonian Magazine.
(Jolie Lee. Spiked eggnog to mistletoe, Christmas traditions explained. USA Today. December 18, 2013.)


ヤドリギには妊娠やお産に効果があるという言い伝えもあるらしく、"kissing under the mistletoe"は人口に膾炙した表現となっていますが、同性愛者が自己を主張する現代に引き合いに出されるとは誰が予想したでしょうか。