In a manner of speaking. Took me less than a minute to guess yours.
(まあそうとも言えるね。1分もかからずに解けちゃうようなパスワードだけどね。)
BBCドラマ「シャーロック」エピソード2 "The Blind Banker" より。勝手に自分のパソコンを使っているホームズを見つけたワトスン。「パスワードかかってるのに!」と抗議すると、ホームズは涼しい顔でこう応える。
- "in a manner of speaking" なんて成句、受験のときやったなー。参考書に載ってたなー。という記憶はあるけど、どんな意味かは忘れていたよ。「言わば…/ある意味では…」という意味(this is one way to say it /so to speak/in some ways, though not exactly/used to say that a statement is true or accurate in a certain way even if it is not literally or completely true/true in some but not all ways)。ここでは「パスワードかかってるのに!」→「パスワード?ああそうね、あんな1分もかからずに解けるものでも一応パスワードかかってると言えなくはないね。」ということ。こういうやりとりはククク、となるね。
- 喜ばしくないことをちょっとでもいい風に言う時に使ったりもする。(sometimes used to suggest that something unpleasant is being described in a more pleasant way)
- We should go south.” “--So that means I should turn left?---In a manner of speaking, yes.
- Are you his girlfriend?--In a manner of speaking.
- She was, in a manner of speaking, not at her best – in fact, she was exhausted and had the flu.
- His retirement was, in a manner of speaking, the beginning of his real career.
- After the storm destroyed their house, they were, in a manner of speaking, lost at sea.
- All these points of view are related, in a manner of speaking.
- She's his partner, in a manner of speaking.
- We were, in a manner of speaking, babes in the woods.
- He was, in a manner of speaking, asked to leave the group.
- このセリフのあとに続くホームズの "Not exactly Fort Knox." というセリフも面白い。Fort Knoxは米ケンタッキー州にある軍用地で、米国連邦貯蔵庫があるところ。つまり、すごく厳重に管理されているところ。as safe as Fort Knox(=極めて安全な)という表現もあるらしい。