英文解釈教室の出典を探る(38)

Chapter 6 同格構文

例題6.1.2

Holidayの起源は"Holy Day"

In spite of a slight change of spelling, holiday scarcely conceals from us that it was originally holy day. Historians seem to agree that such a day was, in the beginning, devoted to the placation of some force of natural or the worship of a god. The idea that men and women needed a rest from work and that they would thrive better if they had a pause in the endless monotony of repeated days-all this has been a secondary growth.

出典：George R. Stewart: "American Ways of Life: Vol.1, 1954

（参考）
例題 4.1.1
…In all previous civilizations, men asked what the gods wished them to do or say, before they did it; and the priests were there to tell them….

例題 4.2.2
…Indeed, the life of the less civilised half of mankind is largely based on trying to find an answer to a wrong question….

例題 5.2.2
…The father of song, music. and dancing was that savage who first clapped hands leapt and shouted in time at some festival of his tribe…

例題 14.3.2
…But without the light of science the unknown is a menace to be avoided by taboo or propitiated by incantation and sacrifice….