wolfとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Middle English wolf, from 古期英語 wulf, ƿulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz (compare Saterland Frisian Wulf, West Frisian かつ Dutch wolf, German Wolf, Norwegian かつ Danish ulv), from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos (compare Sanskrit वृक (vṛ́ka), Persian گرگ‎ (gorg), Lithuanian vilkas, Russian волк (volk), Albanian ujk, Latin lupus, Greek λύκος (lýkos), Tocharian B walkwe). Doublet of lobo and lupus.

発音

• enPR: wo͝olf
  • (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /wʊlf/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /wʊlf/, [wʊ̠ɫf], [wɫ̩f]^[1]
  • (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /wʊlf/, [wʊwf]
• enPR: wo͝of, IPA^(key): /wʊf/ (now 一般的ではない用法)^[1][2]
• enPR: wŭlf, IPA^(key): /wʌlf/ (廃れた用法)
• 韻: -ʊlf

名詞

wolf (複数形 wolves)

1. Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
   • 1968, Conquest, Robert, “The Purge Begins”, in The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties‎^[1], Macmillan Company, LCCN 68-17513, OCLC 1169910711, OL 21272570M, page 74:

     He would listen quietly at meetings of the Politburo, or to distinguished visitors, puffing at his Dunhill pipe, doodling aimlessly - his secretaries Poskrebyshev and Dvinsky write that his pads were sometimes covered with the phrase ‘Lenin-teacher-friend’, but the last foreigner to visit him, in February 1953, noted that he was doodling wolves.

   1. Any of several related canines that resemble Canis lupus in appearance, especially those of the genus Canis.
2. A man who makes amorous advances to many women.
3. (music) A wolf tone or wolf note.

   The soft violin solo was marred by persistent wolves.

4. (figuratively) Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation.

   They toiled hard to keep the wolf from the door.

   the bee wolf

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071, page 85:

     “ […] Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. Oh, dear, there's so much to tell you, so many warnings to give you, but all that must be postponed for the moment.”

5. One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths.
6. A white worm, or maggot, which infests granaries.
7. A wolf spider.
8. (obsolete) An eating ulcer or sore. See lupus.
   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], OCLC 1203220866:

     If God should send a cancer upon thy face, or a wolf into thy side

9. A willying machine, to cleanse wool or willow.
   • 1872, Johann Rudolph von Wagner, A handbook of Chemical Technology:

     The loosening and purifying of the raw cotton from the various impurities , such as sand, grit, &c., is accomplished by beating with the hand, or by the Wolf machine, by means of a cylinder, the surface of which is covered with sharp iron teeth

同意語

• loafer, lobo, lofer, loper, lover (Southwestern US dialects)

上位語

• (large wild canid): Canis lupus, canid

下位語

• (large wild canid): she-wolf, wolfess

等位語

• (large wild canid): dingo, dog (members of Canis lupus not called wolf); coyote, jackal, fox (other canids)

派生語

派生した語

• → Ido: volfo (also from German)

参照

• “wolf” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

動詞

wolf (三人称単数 現在形 wolfs, 現在分詞 wolfing, 過去形および過去分詞形 wolfed)

1. (transitive) To devour; to gobble; to eat (something) voraciously.
   • 1987, James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia:

     After a wolfed burger dinner, I called the night number at Administrative Vice and inquired about known lesbian gathering places.

   • 2013, Neil Martin, Collected Stories of the Sea:

     Vicars seated himself and began wolfing a sandwich.

2. (intransitive, slang) To make amorous advances to many women; to hit on women; to cruise for sex.
   • 1949, Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm:

     [1940s Chicago punk:] ‘I’ve seen a thing or two in my time,’ he still liked to boast, ‘that was how I found out the best place for wolfin’ ain’t the taverns. It ain’t in dance halls ’r on North Clark on Saturday night. It’s in the front row in Sunday school on Sunday mornin’. Oh yeh, I know a thing or two, I been around.’

3. (intransitive) To hunt for wolves.

同意語

• (devour, gobble): gulp down, wolf down

Further reading

• wolf on Wikipedia.

参照

アナグラム

• flow, fowl