夏バテ
なつばて [natsubate] – Something about the 38℃ days just makes you tired, you know. In Japanese, that fatigue is called 夏バテ.
手品
てじな [tejina] – ‘Hand’ (手) plus ‘wares’ (品) gives us the Japanese word for sleight-of-hand. The word 奇術 [kijutsu] is typically used for…
Japanese vocabulary: crime words
Japan is one of the safest countries in the world, but not without its share of problems. Mostly, these problems amount to stolen bicycles and umbrellas (I had my own bicycle stolen last fall). Recently I played through 龍が如く３ (English title: Yakuza 3) on Playstation 3, so I had a chance to polish my crime vocabulary a little bit. Here’s a list of crime-related words which may or may not have been found in the game.
天啓
てんけい [tenkei] – A divine revelation.
Not simply messages from God (which are actually pretty uncommon, I hear)…
悪阻
つわり [tsuwari] – This ominous combination of kanji (evil 悪 and obstruction 阻) gives us the word for morning sickness (the early pregnancy symptom).
腹癒せ
はらいせ [haraise] – Literally, “soothing the stomach”. This expression refers to taking your anger out on something. In a strict definition…
御の字
おんのじ [on no ji] – This phrase describes something you’re so grateful for that it makes you want to use the honorific character 御. In other words…
土壇場
どたんば [dotanba] – Means, “at the last moment” or “in a very dire situation.” In the Edo period, criminals sentenced to decapitation were made to…
物色
ぶっしょく [busshoku] – Thing (物) + color (色) equals…? Yep! that’s right: “to search around looking for just the right thing”. Or…
立ち眩み
たちくらみ [tachikurami] – Ever wish there was a word to describe that annoying vertigo/”blacking out” sensation you get when you stand up suddenly?…
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