tawdry

• adj.とても豪華な; 安っぽく下品な
• n.下品なもの；安っぽくて下品なもの

tawdry、女性用の絹のスカーフ、tawdry laceから略されたもので、7世紀北イングランド王国のノーザンブリア女王、聖オードリーのレースから転用された。聖オードリーは、喉に腫瘍があり、それを隠すためにスカーフを身につける必要があったためとされ、毎年10月17日の彼女の記念日の集まりでは、たいてい同じようなスカーフが売られていた。そのスカーフは、喉にできた腫瘍を隠すために身に着けていたと言われているが、結局彼女はその腫瘍が原因で亡くなった。多くの人がこのスカーフを身に着けているため、その延長線上にはダサくて派手なものがある。

tawdry

tawdry: [17] Anna, Anglo-Saxon king of East Anglia, had a daughter called Etheldrida, who became queen of Northumbria (she died in 679). She had an inordinate fondness in her youth for fine lace neckerchiefs, and when she was later afflicted by a fatal tumour of the neck, she regarded it as divine retribution for her former extravagance. After her death she was canonized and made patron saint of Ely.

In the Middle Ages fairs were held in her memory, known as ‘St Audrey’s fairs’ (Audry is a conflated version of Etheldrida), at which lace neckties were sold. These were termed Seynt Audries lace, a name eventually eroded to tawdrie lace. They were often made from cheap gaudy material, and so by the end of the 17th century tawdry was being used generally for ‘cheap and gaudy’.

tawdry (adj.)

"no longer fresh or elegant but worn as if it were so; in cheap and ostentatious imitation of what is rich or costly," 1670s, adjective use of noun tawdry "silk necktie for women" (1610s), shortened from tawdry lace (1540s), an alteration (with adhesion of the -t- from Saint) of St. Audrey's lace, a necktie or ribbon sold at the annual fair at Ely on Oct. 17 commemorating St. Audrey (queen of Northumbria, died 679). Her association with lace necklaces is that she supposedly died of a throat tumor, which, according to Bede, she considered God's punishment for her youthful stylishness. Related: Tawdriness.

"I know of a surety that I deservedly bear the weight of my trouble on my neck, for I remember that, when I was a young maiden, I bore on it the needless weight of necklaces; and therefore I believe the Divine goodness would have me endure the pain in my neck, that so I may be absolved from the guilt of my needless levity, having now, instead of gold and pearls, the fiery heat of a tumour rising on my neck." [A.M. Sellar translation, 1907]

1. Do you attend operas，or do you read tawdry novels？

オペラショーを見学しますか、それともポピュラー小説を読みますか。

2.The main street has assumed its tawdry prosperity with discomfort.

にぎやかな通りは不安な雰囲気が漂っている。

3.She slopped about her room，unkempt and dishevelled，in her tawdry dressing-gown.

彼女は身なりをかまわず、髪いっぱいで、俗っぽいパジャマを着て部屋の中を歩いていた。

4.She saw herself as shallow, tawdry .

彼女は自分がただの色とりどりの薄っぺらで俗っぽい女に見えた。

5.Everything seemed strange，so tawdry and grotesque.

すべてが珍しく、派手で、滑稽だ。