breast: [OE] Breast can be traced back via prehistoric Germanic *breustam to an Indo- European base *bhrus- or *bhreus-, whose other descendants, including Old Saxon brustian ‘bud’, Middle High German briustern ‘swell’, and Irish brú ‘abdomen, womb’, suggest that the underlying reference contained in the word may be to the growth and swelling of the female breasts. By the time it reached Old English, as brēost, it had already developed a more general, non-sex-specific sense ‘chest’, but the meaning element ‘mammary gland’ has remained throughout, and indeed over the past two hundred years ‘chest’ has grown steadily more archaic.
breast (n.)
Old English breost "breast, bosom; mind, thought, disposition," from Proto-Germanic *breustam "breast" (cognates: Old Saxon briost, Old Frisian briast, Old Norse brjost, Dutch borst, German brust, Gothic brusts), perhaps literally "swelling" and from PIE root *bhreus- "to swell, sprout" (cognates: Middle Irish bruasach "having a broad, strong chest," Old Irish bruinne "breast"). The spelling conforms to the Scottish and northern England dialectal pronunciation. Figurative sense of "seat of the emotions" was in Old English.
例文
1. The president beat his breast and called that deal a mistake.
総裁は、それは間違った取引だと地団駄を踏んだ。
2.Cancer of the breast in young women is uncommon.
乳がんは若い女性にはあまり見られない。
3.The breast can be cut into portions for grilling.
胸肉は小さく切って焼くことができます。
4.He reached into his breast pocket for his cigar case.
彼は胸ポケットに手を入れてシガーケースを持っている。/
5. Breast self-examination is invaluable for detection cancer in its very early stages.