刈り取り人
解説 Definition
reapers は reaper（刈り取り人、収穫する人）の複数形です。農作物を刈り取る人を指し、文脈によっては刈り取り機を指すこともありますが、ここでは人について使います。
People who cut and gather ripe crops during a harvest. This plural noun traditionally refers to human workers in a field, although the singular reaper can also name a harvesting machine or appear in the figurative expression the Grim Reaper.
覚え方のコツ Memory Tip
単数形 reaper に複数語尾 -s が付いた形で、末尾は /z/ と発音します。reap「作物を刈り取る」＋動作者の -er で reaper「刈る人」、その複数が reapers です。reapers worked in the field や moved through the wheat と、鎌を持つ複数の収穫作業者の場面を結び付けましょう。
Build the word in stages: reap means “cut and gather a crop,” -er names the person who performs the action, and plural -s gives reapers. The final -s is pronounced /z/. Picture several workers moving through a wheat field until sunset; they are reapers because they reap the crop. Link it with harvest, but note that harvesters is broader and can refer to workers or machines. In these examples, reapers specifically means people. The familiar figure called the Grim Reaper uses the same harvesting image metaphorically for death.
例文
The reapers worked in the field until sunset.
刈り取り人たちは日没まで畑で働きました。
Several reapers moved slowly through the wheat.
数人の刈り取り人が小麦畑をゆっくり進みました。
The farmer thanked the reapers after the harvest was finished.
収穫が終わると、農家は刈り取り人たちに感謝しました。
reapers の類義語・関連語
reapers の語源・成り立ち Etymology
古英語 ripan（刈る）に動作者を表す接尾辞 -er を付けた reaper の複数形。ゲルマン祖語 *ripanã に遡る。harvest（収穫）と意味が近く、reap what you sow（蒔いた種を刈る）の慣用句でも有名。「刈り取る人→死神」の比喩的用法も生まれた。
Reapers is the regular plural of reaper, which combines the verb reap with the agent suffix -er. Reap descends from Old English ripan, “to reap or harvest,” and belongs to the Germanic vocabulary of English. The literal reaper was a person who cut ripe grain or other crops. From the image of cutting down life as if it were grain came the figurative personification known as the Grim Reaper.
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