handlangerとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Borrowed from Afrikaans handlanger (“assistant, helper”), from Dutch handlanger (“accomplice, henchman; assistant, helper”), analyzable as hand (“hand”) + langen (“to hand over または pass to”) + -er (“suffix indicating the subject performing an action”) (in the sense of someone who puts things into another person's hands), from German Handlanger (“handyman; henchman”), from Hand (“hand”) + langen (“to hand over, to give; to reach for something”) + -er (“suffix forming agent nouns from verbs”).

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /ˈhændˌlæŋə/
  • ハイフネーション: hand‧lang‧er

名詞

handlanger (複数形 handlangers)

1. (South Africa) An unskilled assistant to an artisan.
   • 1976, Het Suid Western:

     […] building himself brick by brick, with his wife as his only handlanger.

2. (South Africa, figuratively) An aide, an assistant.
   • 2006, Richard Calland, Anatomy of South Africa: Who Holds the Power?, Cape Town: Zebra Press, →ISBN, page 177:

     [E]very political leader has a handlanger. Like a toddler with a security blanket, the political handlanger is a necessary sop and sponge for all the tension that goes with the job. And there is nothing either disreputable or degrading about the role. Politics can be spiteful and demanding; the handlanger is the trusted confidant, the one person whom the leader can sound out, seek counsel from and trust.

   • 2016 March 17, Judith February, “Which colour pill will the ANC choose?”, in Daily Maverick‎^[1], archived from the original on 11 April 2016:

     The time for talk truly is over now. The ANC will have to do the necessary, find its backbone and rein in [Jacob] Zuma, his cronies and their handlangers to avert an economic crisis happening on its watch.

3. Alternative letter-case form of Handlanger.

参照

• Jean Branford (1978) A Dictionary of South African English, Cape Town; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.

Further reading

• “handlanger”, in Collins English Dictionary.