Steven Pinker가 쓴 책 The better angels of our nature에 나온 글귀.
Genocides don't exactly fall into a power-law distribution, if for no other reason than that the small massacres that would go into the tall spine tend not be counted as "genocides."
if for no other reason than 뜻은 다른 이유가 없더라도 than 다음에 이어지는 이유만으로도 앞에 사실을 설명할 수 있다는 뜻이다.
if for no other reason thansimply means that what you're talking about is alone or already a good enough reason to do something.
다른 보기를 들면,
You should study Englishif for no other reason thanbeing educated.
(영어 배워서 다른 좋은 점이 없더라도) 교육을 받으면 어쨌든 좋은 것이므로 너는 영어를 공부해야 해.
I'm adopting a tolerant attitude toward your flights of lunacy.
여기서 flight 뜻은 a brilliant, imaginative or unrestrained exercise of display다. 그러니까 'flights of lunacy'라고 하면 '말도 안되는 괴상한 생각'이란 뜻쯤 되겠다. 비슷한 보기를 찾아보니 아래와 같이 쓰인다.
She could be disciplined. She could have wildflightsoffantasy. She was really quite diverse.
Throughout its history, Cuba has inspired larger-than-lifeflightsofimagination.
But on occasion, he departs from the mundane into great flightsofcontemplation.
그런데 flights of fantasy나 flights of imagination은 '환상의 나래', '상상의 나래'쯤으로 번역하면 될까? 그리고 '환상의 나래'나 '상상의 나래'는 원래 우리말에 없었는데, 이 영어 표현을 번역하면서 처음 썼을까?
proverbial wife/husband라고 하면 아주 전통적이고 전형적인 아내와 남편을 말한다.
2. well-known, legendary, reputed
속담이나 잘 알려진 문구 앞에 잘 쓰인다. 그리고 proverbial을 찾아보다가 마주치겐 된 관형 표현인 'a fly on the wall'
A fly on the wall 정의를 보면,
If you say that you would like to be a fly on thewallon anoccasion, youmeanthat you would like tohearwhat will be said orseewhat willhappenwhile not being noticed.
그러니까 몰래 숨어서 보거나 듣는 사람을 말한다. 이를테면, I'd love to be a (proverbial) fly on the wall when those two get home 라고 쓸 수 있다.
They also use this saying in the Army, although this is the compressed form. The full saying we used was "Slow is steady, steady is smooth, smooth is fast."
For more context (from the Army perspective), this comes up most heavily in weapon drills and squad movement, particularly where combined: clearing houses; getting out of trucks while under fire; getting out of helicopters while under fire; carrying casualties. The idea is that we need to be able to do several complex tasks at once:
Move with the group in a coordinated fashion, often across difficult terrain
Keep weapons ready, which includes both presenting a threat to the direction you are responsible for and being mindful of safety
Recognize and communicate relevant information (like threats or likely locations for threats)
Any other assigned task (like carrying casualties or equipment)
All of this needs to keep happening under conditions of sensory bombardment and high stress
The Army particularly stresses getting the first and second down to "muscle memory", which I put in quotes because they use the phrase for anything that needs to be automatic, even non-physical tasks.