hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2021-08

■ #4503. 使い古された直喩 [simile][rhetoric][metaphor][proverb][alliteration]

　英語には「#4415. as mad as a hatter --- 強意的・俚諺的直喩の言葉遊び」 ([2021-05-29-1]) で紹介したような，俚諺的直喩 (proverbial simile) や強意的直喩 (intensifying simile) と呼ばれる直喩がたくさんあります．その多くは「#943. 頭韻の歴史と役割」 ([2011-11-26-1]) でも指摘した通り，頭韻 (alliteration) を踏む語呂のよい表現です．
　しかし，これらはあまりに使い古されている "stock phrase" であることも事実で，不用意に使うと独創性がないというレッテルを張られかねません．皮肉屋の Partridge はこれらを "battered similes" であると否定的にみなし「使う前に再考を」を呼びかけているほどです．Partridge (303--05) より列挙してみましょう．

・ aspen leaf, shake (or tremble) like an
・ bad shilling (or penny), turn up (or come back) like a
・ bear with a sore head, like a
・ black as coal - or pitch - or the Pit, as blush like a schoolgirl, to
・ bold (or brave) as a lion, as
・ bright as a new pin, as [obsolescent]
・ brown as a berry, as
・ bull in a china shop, (behave) like a
・ cat on hot bricks, like a; e.g. jump about caught like a rat in a trap
・ cheap as dirt, as
・ Cheshire cat, grin like a
・ clean as a whistle, as
・ clear as crystal (or the day or the sun), as; jocularly, as clear as mud
・ clever as a cart- (or waggon-) load of monkeys, as
・ cold as charity, as
・ collapse like a pack of cards
・ cool as a cucumber, as
・ crawl like a snail
・ cross as a bear with a sore head (or as two sticks), as
・ dark as night, as
・ dead as a door-nail, as
・ deaf as a post (or as an adder), as
・ different as chalk from cheese, as
・ drink like a fish, to
・ drop like a cart-load of bricks, to
・ drowned like a rat
・ drunk as a lord, as
・ dry as a bone (or as dust), as
・ dull as ditch-water, as
・ Dutch uncle, talk (to someone) like a
・ dying like flies
・ easy as kiss (or as kissing) your hand, as; also as easy as falling off a log
・ fight like Kilkenny cats
・ fit as a fiddle, as
・ flash, like a
・ flat as a pancake, as
・ free as a bird, as; as free as the air
・ fresh as a daisy (or as paint), as
・ good as a play, as; i.e. very amusing
・ good as good, as; i.e. very well behaved
・ good in parts, like the curate's egg
・ green as grass, as
・ hang on like grim death
・ happy (or jolly) as a sandboy (or as the day is long), as
・ hard as a brick (or as iron or, fig., as nails), as
・ hate like poison, to
・ have nine lives like a cat, to
・ heavy as lead, as
・ honest as the day, as
・ hot as hell, as
・ hungry as a hunter, as
・ innocent as a babe unborn (or as a new-born babe), as
・ keen as mustard, as
・ lamb to the slaughter, like a
・ large as life (jocularly: large as life and twice as natural), as
・ light as a feather (or as air), as
・ like as two peas, as
・ like water off a duck's back
・ live like fighting cocks
・ look like a dying duck in a thunderstorm
・ look like grim death
・ lost soul, like a
・ mad as a March hare (or as a hatter), as
・ meek as a lamb, as
・ memory like a sieve a
・ merry as a grig, as [obsolescent]
・ mill pond, the sea [is] like a
・ nervous as a cat, as
・ obstinate as a mule, as
・ old as Methuselah (or as the hills), as
・ plain as a pikestaff (or the nose on your face), as
・ pleased as a dog with two tails (or as Punch), as
・ poor as a church mouse, as
・ pretty as a picture, as
・ pure as the driven snow, as
・ quick as a flash (or as lightning), as
・ quiet as a mouse (or mice), as
・ read (a person) like a book, to (be able to)
・ red as a rose (or as a turkey-cock), as
・ rich as Croesus, as
・ right as a trivet (or as rain), as
・ roar like a bull
・ run like a hare
・ safe as houses (or as the Bank of England), as
・ sharp as a razor (or as a needle), as
・ sigh like a furnace, to
・ silent as the grave, as
・ sleep like a top, to
・ slippery as an eel, as
・ slow as a snail (or as a wet week)
・ sob as though one's heart would break, to
・ sober as a judge, as
・ soft as butter, as
・ sound as a bell, as
・ speak like a book, to
・ spring up like mushrooms overnight
・ steady as a rock, as
・ still as a poker (or as a ramrod), as
・ straight as a die, as
・ strong as a horse, as
・ swear like a trooper
・ sweet as a nut (or as sugar), as
・ take to [something] like (or as) a duck to water
・ thick as leaves in Vallombrosa as [Ex. Milton's 'Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks In Vallombrosa']
・ thick as thieves, as
・ thin as a lath (or as a rake), as
・ ton of bricks, (e.g. come down or fall) like a
・ tough as leather, as
・ true as steel, as
・ two-year-old, like a
・ ugly as sin, as
・ warm as toast, as
・ weak as water, as
・ white as a sheet (or as snow), as
・ wise as Solomon, as

　・ Partridge, Eric. Usage and Abusage. 3rd ed. Rev. Janet Whitcut. London: Penguin Books, 1999.

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