英和和英

発音

• (英国発音) IPA: /lɛm.ɪŋ/
• 韻: -ɛmɪŋ

名詞

lemming (plural lemmings)

1. A small arctic and subarctic rodent of the tribes Lemmini, Dicrostonychini and Lagurini.
   • 1876, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Geographical Distribution of Animals, chapter 2, page 18:

     The well-known lemmings, in severe winters, at long intervals, move down from the mountains of Scandinavia in immense numbers, crossing lakes and rivers, eating their way through haystacks, and surmounting every obstacle till they reach the sea, whence very few return.

2. (figuratively) Any member of a group given to conformity or groupthink, especially a group poised to follow a leader off a cliff.
   • 2004, Ilse Hobbs, Jan Havenga, A Practical Guide to Strategy, →ISBN, page 127:

     Lemmings are strongly cohesive, but could be, in organisational terms, highly destructive for the business.

   • 2014, M.P. Fedunkiw, A Degree of Futility‎, page 61:

     Like a lemming, I followed the crowd, got to the right line and was concentrating hard when queried by the customs officer.

同意語

• sable mouse

派生語

参照

• “lemming”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• lemming on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Arvicolinae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies