May
12
2010

ばついち

[batsu ichi] – Batsu is the ‘x’ character and ichi means ‘one’. Together, batsu ichi is a colloquial word that refers to someone who has divorced their first spouse.

The word originates from how family registers are written; spouses that are removed from the register are marked with an X.

You may also see this word rendered as ×いち, ×イチ or バツイチ.

妻も私もバツイチ同士。
My wife and I both divorced our first spouses.

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Posted under Vocabulary Bank by Nihonshock.

2 Responses


  • I know this is a little unrealted to ‘batsu ichi’ but you reminded me of a question I’ve wanted the answer to for so long now!

    I’ve found conflicting instructions on how to use family words and I wondered which were the right ones.

    Some say that titles like: okaasan, otousan, obaasan etc. are only to be used when talking about someone elses mother, father or grandmother.
    Others say these are just a formal way of speaking to your family members depending on how close you are to them. If you were closer, you might say, kaachan, touchann or sobo instead.

    So I’m a little confused. Could I call my grandmother obaasan, or would I in fact be ineffectually referring to someone else’s grandmother?

    I hope you can help! Thanks for your time ^_^

    by: Willow, May 12th at 10:10 pm

  • Willow, my understanding is it’s entirely normal to use these titles in your own family, though often you call your mum okaasan, and your dad otousan, but you might call your own grandmother obaachan, and your own grandfather ojiichan.

    by: Joshua Oppenheimer, Oct 25th at 5:14 am