pigeonとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (英国発音) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪ.d͡ʒɪn/
• (米国発音) enPR: pĭjʹən, IPA^(key): /ˈpɪ.d͡ʒən/
• 韻: -ɪd͡ʒən, -ɪd͡ʒɪn
• Homophone: pidgin

語源 1

Inherited from Middle English pygeoun, borrowed from Old French pyjon, inherited from Late Latin pīpiōnem (“chirping bird”), derived from Latin pīpiāre (“chirp”).

別の表記

• pidgeon (chiefly 古風な用法)

名詞

pigeon (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 pigeons)

1. One of several birds of the family Columbidae, which consists of more than 300 species.

   Synonyms: columbid, culver, dove

2. (uncountable) The meat from this bird.
3. (Canada, 米国用法, informal) A person who is a target or victim of a confidence game.

   Synonyms: dupe, fish, sucker; see also Thesaurus:dupe

4. (countable, politics) A pacifist, appeaser, an isolationist, a dove.
5. A person hired to transport film footage out of a region where transport options are limited.
   • 1989, Whitman Bassow, The Moscow Correspondents, page 214:

     Kalb rushed to the airport and found a "pigeon" to take out the film: an American woman headed for London.

   • 2021, Hilary Brown, War Tourist: Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent:

     At this point, all the commercial airports in Pakistan were closed. The only way to get film out was over land. John promptly hired me to be what was then known in the business as a "Pigeon," and installed me in a comfortable room in his hotel. […] I would then hand-carry his film out of the country, via Peshawar, the Khyber Pass, through the Kabul Gorge, and up to Kabul, Afghanistan, where I would meet a BBC courier and transfer the film bag.

6. (Australia, military slang) A weak or useless person.

派生語

動詞

pigeon (三人称単数 現在形 pigeons, 現在分詞 pigeoning, 過去形および過去分詞形 pigeoned)

1. (transitive) To deceive with a confidence game.

参考

• dove
• pidgin
• piper
• squab
• squeaker

語源 2

From pidgin English, from a Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation of English business during trade in the Far East. See pidgin.

名詞

pigeon (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 pigeons)

1. (archaic, idiomatic, UK, informal) Concern or responsibility.

   It's his/her pigeon.

参照

• (concern または responsibility): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary (described as Anglo-Chinese)

Further reading

• pigeon on Wikipedia.
• “pigeon”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.