cold call 「勧誘電話」「飛び込みのセールス訪問」

前々回の cold case から cold つながりで、cold call という表現を取り上げたい。「売り込みのための勧誘電話」ということで、この場合の cold は「前置きのない」といったような意味に取ればよさそうだ。

ウクライナ情勢に関する最近の CNN の記事を読んでいたら、ちょうどこの表現が使われていた。

- Marija Stonyte picks up her phone and anxiously dials in a number. After a couple of rings, a woman picks up.
（中略）
This is one of dozens of cold calls that Stonyte and her husband make every day to people in Russia from their home in Lithuania as part of a volunteer initiative aimed at penetrating Russia's so-called digital iron curtain.
（中略）
Others, like Stonyte, are trying a more individual approach. They're cold calling or messaging strangers in Russia, hoping their personal pleas will disrupt the Kremlin's propaganda -- and potentially even help put an end to the deadly war.
（中略）
Stonyte, the Lithuanian cold caller, is more sympathetic to the difficulties for Russians.
("The people cold calling to chip away at Russia's digital iron curtain" CNN, April 2, 2022)

英語圏の辞書から定義や例文を引用しよう。call を訪問の意味で使えば「飛び込みの不意の訪問」ということになる。

- to call or visit a possible customer to try to sell them something without being asked by the customer to do so:
We were cold-called by a company offering savings on our phone bill.
In this job, you have to be prepared to cold-call.
(Cambridge Dictionary)

- 1. COUNTABLE NOUN
If someone makes a cold call, they phone or visit someone they have never contacted, without making an appointment, in order to try and sell something.
She had worked as a call centre operator making cold calls for time-share holidays.
2. VERB
To cold call means to make a cold call.
You should refuse to meet anyone who cold calls with an offer of financial advice.
cold calling UNCOUNTABLE NOUN
Cold calling has given the industry a bad name.
(COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

最後の例文は「cold calling は業界の評判を落としている」というものだが、Wikipedia には cold calling の項目が立てられていて、いくつかの問題点や各国の規制などについて記述されていた。興味がある方は参照いただきたい。
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_calling


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