cockroach
ゴキブリ
解説 Definition
cockroach は、害虫として知られるゴキブリという意味です。日本語では通常「コックローチ」ではなく「ゴキブリ」と言い、英語では家庭や建物内で見つかる虫を指して使われます。
A cockroach is a flat-bodied, fast-moving insect, typically active at night, that includes species commonly found in kitchens, buildings, and other warm places. Household cockroaches are widely regarded as pests because they can contaminate food and multiply rapidly.
覚え方のコツ Memory Tip
cockroach は家庭や建物に侵入する「ゴキブリ」。日常では短く roach とも言います。綴りは cock＋roach に見えますが、雄鶏や魚とは無関係で、スペイン語 cucaracha が英語話者になじみ深い形へ変化したものです。kitchen、pest control、keep food sealed などの典型場面と結び付けましょう。
Picture a cockroach running across a kitchen floor at night, then connect it with pest control and keeping food sealed. In informal English, especially American English, roach is a common shorter name. Although the spelling appears to contain cock and roach, the insect is connected with neither a rooster nor the fish called a roach. The form arose when Spanish cucaracha was reshaped into sounds and spellings familiar to English speakers. Remembering that folk-etymology story makes the unusual spelling easier to retain while preventing a false interpretation of its two apparent parts.
例文
A cockroach ran across the kitchen floor.
ゴキブリが台所の床を走って横切りました。
The apartment manager called a service after finding a cockroach.
アパートの管理人はゴキブリを見つけた後、業者を呼びました。
Keeping food sealed can help prevent a cockroach problem.
食べ物を密閉しておくと、ゴキブリの問題を防ぐのに役立ちます。
cockroach の類義語・関連語
cockroach の語源・成り立ち Etymology
スペイン語 cucaracha（ゴキブリ）が英語に入る際、民間語源で cock（雄鶏）+ roach（コイ科の魚）に変形した。原語の語源は不明だが、cuca（毛虫）に由来する説がある。言葉の意味と無関係な音に置き換わった「民間語源」の典型例である。
Cockroach comes from Spanish cucaracha, the ordinary Spanish word for the insect. When the term entered English in the seventeenth century, speakers reshaped its unfamiliar sounds into the familiar-looking elements cock and roach. This is a classic example of folk etymology: a borrowed word is altered to resemble known words even though their meanings are unrelated. The ultimate origin of Spanish cucaracha is uncertain, so the secure history begins with the Spanish source.
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