What does “the hardware” a Japanese moviemaker took home after being awarded the Jury prize at Cannes Film Festival mean?
Japan Times (May 28) reported that Hirokazu Koreeda, movie director won the Jury Prize at 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The article titled, “Director Koreeda wins Jury Prize in Cannes begins with the following sentence:
“Director Hirokazu Koreeda’s “Soshite Chichi ni naru (Like father, like son)” has become the latest Japanese moviemaker to take the hardware home, after he was awarded the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Koreeda’s movie a story about two couples, whose babies were switched at birth, is the first Japanese work to receive the prize since the late Rentaro Mikuni’s “Shinran: Shiroi Michi” was honored the honor in 1987.”
According to Oxford English Dictionary, Hardware mean;
- tools, machinery, and other durable equipment:
- the machines, wiring, and other physical components of a computer or other electronic system:.
Cambridge English Dictionary also defines ‘hardware’ as: the physical and electronic parts of a computer, rather than the instructions it follows.
I’ve never learnt the case of “Hardware” which I understand only in contrast to ‘software’ being used in such a way referring to the prize. What does a Japanese movie maker took the “hardware” home?
Can 'hardware' normally be used in this way?
Here, "hardware" is a euphemism for a trophy, often used in headlines like UCLA baseball finally adds hardware to national championship trophy case or Nice hardware: National championship trophy impresses. It likely relates to the use of "hardware" to mean small metal goods, similar to the "hardware bag" containing screws that comes with furniture you have to assemble yourself and the use of "hardware" as slang for carryable metal weapons.