lowdownとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Compound adjective of low +‎ down in the sense of "humble" recorded in the 1540s, in the sense of "vulgar, far down the social scale" in 1888. Recorded as a noun in 1915 in the slang sense of secret or inside information.

名詞

lowdown (uncountable)

1. inside information, the story or truth.

   Synonyms: scoop, dirt, dope, straight dope, poop

   All the reporters hoped to be the first to get the lowdown on the celebrity's marriage plans.

   here's the lowdown

   to give somebody the lowdown

   • 1985, “Can’t Get There From Here”, in Fables of the Reconstruction, performed by R.E.M.:

     Lawyer Jeff, he knows the low-down / It’s mighty bad to visit home

2. A lowlife, a despicable person.

形容詞

lowdown (comparative more lowdown, superlative most lowdown)

1. Unfair; scoundrelly; shameful.

   lowdown tactics

2. seedy, sketchy, disreputable
   • 1988 August 20, Chris Reed, “The English 'Strip-tique'”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 6, page 11:

     So there I was, in the front row of course (it was my reportorial duty), with a bunch of gay men and straight women. And we're all involved in a lowdown — but eminently "Safe" — celebration of the erotic possibilities of the male body.

   • 1994, Ivan Webster, The Cares of the Day, University of Alabama Press, →ISBN, page 28:

     Some kinda way, he talked Aunt Fanny into running off with him that night. When they got as far as Kansas City, he was through with her. They stayed in some lowdown kinda hotel in the colored section there', and after that they were headed God knows where.

3. down low; purporting to be heterosexual while engaged in sex with men.

アナグラム

• down low, down-low, downlow

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈləʊ.daʊn/
• (米国発音) IPA: /ˈloʊ.daʊn/
• 韻: -aʊn

形容詞

low-down (comparative more low-down, superlative most low-down)

1. (slang) Of a person, worthless, contemptibly of no value; despicable.
   • 1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate:

     Seemingly here was an intruder who was violating custom. Moreover, the partners had come to look upon this exceedingly rich district as their exclusive property. And so their indignation was extreme.
     "The low-down, ornery cuss!" said Dobbs. "The nerve of him, crowdin' in on us, just as if there wasn't lots of other places for him to go!"

   • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 151:

     You get out of me kitchen, you low-down scrounger! I ain't going to have you in here, giving me cheek to me face and drinkin' beer I got to pay for.

   • 2007, Olive Ann Burns, Cold Sassy Tree, page 16:

     No-count. Even low-down. I still don't see how Loma could of married into that sharecropper white trash.

2. Down, depressed.
   • 2003, Weird Al Yankovic, “Hardware Store”, in Poodle Hat:

     Nothing ever happens in this town, feeling low-down, not a lot to do around here.
     I thought that I would go right out of my mind until my friend told me the news.

名詞

low-down (plural low-downs)

1. An abject or despicable person.
   • 2014 September 2, William W. Johnstone, A Dangerous Man, Pinnacle Books, →ISBN, page 94:

     He was a lowdown because white men made him that way. Don't you agree?

アナグラム

• down low, down-low, downlow