Question of the Day #1284

Soggy June a wet blanket for cottagers, business owners in Gimli

From the headline of this article at the CBC.

  上記の文で、wet blanketの意味は？
In the sentence above, what does "wet blanket" mean?

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Write your answer in the Comments.

明日、ここに答えを書きます。
I will add the answer and other remarks here tomorrow.

 

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解答

意味：
英辞郎によると、

《a ～》場をしらけさせる人［物］、楽しい雰囲気に水を差す人

   

Answer

According to Merriam-Webster:

one that quenches or dampens enthusiasm or pleasure

 

語源

英辞郎によると、

wet blanketとは、水を含ませたぬれ毛布のことで、火事になったときに炎に覆いかぶせて火を消すために使用する。そこから、パーティーなどが（炎が燃え上がるように）盛り上がっているときに、wet blanketを覆いかぶせるように、場をしらけさせる人のことをいうようになった。

 

Etymology

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

"person who has a dispiriting effect," by 1830, from the notion of a person who throws a damper on social situations in the way a wet blanket smothers a fire (the phrase is attested in this literal sense from 1660s)

   

Examples

1. The effect this had on Drake’s diss was like throwing a wet blanket on a raging fire. — Hazlitt, 30 May 2024
2. And look, Covid is a big, wet blanket thrown over the attitudes of Americans. — NBC News, 9 Jan. 2022
3. Some might think this seems like party poopers that want to place a wet blanket over some good-natured fun. —Lance Eliot, Forbes, 26 Aug. 2022
4. The title character, named Cassandra Webb and played by Dakota Johnson, is a wet blanket possessing few social skills and negligible personal warmth. From Seattle Times
5. She said she knows people at work roll their eyes and maybe think she’s kind of a wet blanket with all of her hand-wringing about plastic waste. From Los Angeles Times

   

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