E83の場合と同様にflying by the seat of your pantsの意味を探していて、このサイトにflyingがひっかかって来た人がいた。ひっかかった部分はflying reindeerのflying。意味がわからないので調べてみた。
Central banking may be an art and the Fed may be very good at flying by the seat of its pants. - 世界を読み解くキーワード これはFT(Financial TImes)の記事なので、この言葉は普通の読者に通じる言葉らしい。
辞書を検索したが、すぐには出てこなかった。ようやくpantsを使った用例の中に見つけた。
Compact Oxford English Dictionary
PHRASES
catch someone with their pants (or trousers) down - informal catch someone in an embarrassingly unprepared state.
fly (or drive) by the seat of one’s pants - informal rely on instinct rather than logic or knowledge.
scare (or bore etc.) the pants off - informal make extremely scared, bored, etc.
検索でググッてみてダメなら、くくってみるといいので、次は”fly by the seat of your pants"とやってみた。
Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms
fly by the seat of your pants informal
to do something difficult without the necessary experience or ability 用例 None of us had ever worked on a magazine before so we were flying by the seat of our pants. [often in continuous tenses]
by the seat of your pants
if you do something by the seat of your pants, you do it using your own
experience and ability, without help from anyone else 用例 We found our way by the seat of our pants, but if I ever did another jungle trek I'd take a guide.
ClicheSite.com
Cliché: Fly by the seat of your pants
1. Doing something without much forethought.
2. Without planning or setting aside specific time to complete something.
陳腐化した言葉だとしているサイトもある。
The Phrase Finder (ここはイギリスのサイトで、いろんな成句の意味の説明と、不明な場合はフォーラムで話したりしてる)
Fly by the seat of your pants
Meaning: Decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a pre-determined plan or theory.
Origin: Early aviation parlance. Aircraft initially had few navigation aids and flying was accomplished by means of the pilot's judgement.
originらしき説明があった。
フォーラム内のコメントで下記があった。これが一番納得がいった。
In Reply to: Re: Fly by the seat of your pants posted by TheFallen on September 24, 2003
What I heard was that it referred to doing something risky on instinct alone. It was commonly used in the World Wars (especially the First, where instruments were rudimentary at best), as noted above, when a person's visibility was affected by fog, clouds, darkness, and so on. The pilot had to rely on instinct to navigate, judging the movement of the airplane by the vibration and shifts in gravity of the chair they were sitting in.
AskMen.com イギリスの用語かと思ったら、アメリカでも使われていた。このサイトは他にも面白いイディオムが載っている。
"Fly by the seat of your pants"
Definition: It does not mean to fart until airborne. Actually, it means to decide a course of action from one second to the next rather than follow anything that resembles a plan.
Origin: Early aviation jargon. Aircraft initially had few navigation aids and flying was accomplished by means of the pilot's eyesight and judgment (possibly related, therefore, to the phrases "pulling it out of your ass" and "having a horseshoe up your ass.")
Use it in a sentence: "When I schmooze with a girl, I've got nothing planned. I seem to have better success getting into her pants if I fly by the seat of mine."
Sayings Explained これはすっきりした説明だと思う。
Fly by the seat of your pants
Decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a pre-determined plan or theory. Aircraft initially had few navigation aids and flying was accomplished by means of the pilot's judgement.
IT by the seat of your pants 一般的に準備不足というネガティブな意味合いがあるととられがちだが、本当は積極的な意味があると説明している。なるほどと思った。
Most people would interpret this to be a synonym for "underprepared", "spontaneous", or "chaotic". Yet, the original meaning doesn't mean this at all. It's a very positive thing. A pilot would use his training, judgement, and skill to bring about a favorable outcome. It didn't indicate a lack of planning -- in fact, quite the opposite. A skillful pilot has to have spent a great deal of time in preparation for a mission, and yet in pre-instrument days, would also have to have an excellent sense of direction, and a knowledge of terrain and problems so thorough as to be little obstacle except in the most extreme circumstances.
調べて見たら面白かった。元の意味から段々変化して、現在は一般的には否定的な意味に取られてしまっているのは仕方がない。ちょっと意味合いが違うかもしれないが、私は結構ボリュームのある翻訳をやる時は、最初に関連資料を読みあさり用語用例を頭に入れ、それからパソコンに向かって一気に訳すことが多い。その後、見直しはするが。その一気に翻訳するぞとパソコンに向かう時、飛行機のコックピットに乗り込む感じがしてた。今回のfly by the seat of your pantsというのも、何となくその時の感覚に似ている感じがしている。
検索でググッてみてダメなら、くくってみるといい。そこできっかけを見つけてさらに絞り込むと探しているものが見付かる場合が多い。
2004/11/14
英語雑感へ戻る
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