寝る前に読んでいたMerriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder のapiaryの項にkamikazeが出てきて驚きました。第二次世界大戦の「kamikaze attack」とかは知っていたけれど、kamikaze単独で「向こう見ずな、自殺的な、reckless or potentially self-destructive」になるとのこと。この単語の功罪はあるにしても、recklessなんかよりkamikazeの方が日本人にとって簡単なのは明らか。使える単語はどんどん使っていくほうがいいかもしれませんね。

ちなみに、ボキャビルの本は他にもInstant Word PowerとWord Power Made Easyを持ってるけれど、このMerriam-Webster版のボキャビルの本が一番いいと思う。今度比較した記事を書こうっと。

apiary /éipièri/ A place where bees are kept for their honey.
  • An apple orchard is an excellent site for an apiary, since the bees keep the apple trees productive by pollinating them.
The social life in an apiary is strange and marvelous. The queen bee, who will become the mother of an entire colony, is created by being fed "royal jelly" in her larval stage. The tens of thousands of worker bees are underdeveloped females; only a handful of the bees are male, and they do no work at all. The workers defend the hive by kamikaze means, stinging any intruder and dying as they do so.
  • apiary 養蜂場
  • underdeveloped 発育の遅れた
  • larval 幼虫の