Biggest Realizations / Mind Blows You've Experienced Learning Japanese: Emoji means what?!?!

How is the family name a pun?

I would guess because as a shinigami (reaper in the dubs), the figure of Death/the Grim Reaper typically wears a black cloak … and cloaks can sometimes be mistaken for capes??? ((plus, his father is also a shinigami.))

Just a guess, as someone coming late to the conversation. ^_^;

(Also, Hi Leebo! Nice to see you around. It’s been over 2 years since I last touched Wanikani… I’ve found I’ve forgotten a ton of stuff… and for months I’ve been toying with the idea of coming back and resetting my progress back to level 5 or 10 or something. Even tried using the self study quiz for several days testing myself a level at a time… but… dropped that some time in the Fall… my stamina for study has gone way down.)

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Yeah, I’ve always found the first chapter being “The Death and The Strawberry” to be incredibly funny. It’s super minor, I don’t know why it amuses me so much, but it does. Good to know that the fun with names/meaning continues in 黒崎!

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Because the main character is an African landmass extending into a body of water. Duh!

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崎 refers to a coastal cape, so unless there was an implied bilingual pun, I’m not sure where the connection would be in Japanese :thinking:

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Hmm… fair enough.

I’ve never seen Kurosaki Ichigo except romanized… so… At least, not that I can recall… It’s been years since I’ve watched an episode of Bleach. YEARS. Like… they were +100 episodes up from where I was… Maybe 270-ish was the latest, and I was around 150-ish? Who can remember? *shrugs* One day, I may try to go back and finish it… or watch one of the movies… Disney+ seems to have a new one.

EDIT: Also… Hiya, Wantitled! :smiley:

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As a lover of tokusatsu shows, they’re absolutely full of puns that I never caught until I started learning Japanese. There’s far too many to even begin noting but I’m always having a “What the fuck” moment every so often when I learn a new kanji or word, and remember an old characters name, and connect the dots.

I really like when kanji highlight an English etymology that should in retrospect have been obvious!
I came across the word 氷山 for “iceberg” and I thought word for word “that’s funny, in the English word a berg isn’t a moun-… aaahh. right. Berg.”

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I remember reading about that game in my PC magzines of the time. Never played it. Thanks for sharing it brings back alost forgotten memories :slight_smile:

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I just (probably very overdue) learned that ひよこ means “chick”, and that ひよこ豆 means “chickpea” (garbanzo bean), which is interesting because that’s exactly the same as English, so I wanted to see if there was a connection between the two. Turns out, not only is there no connection, the English doesn’t even come from the word “chick”.

The English comes from the Latin “cicer”, but the Japanese actually comes from the beans resembling chicks (apparently it’s to do with the color).

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Stuff I found seemed to indicate ひよこ豆 does come from English. They just assumed “chickpea” meant “baby bird pea” and directly translated it. The same article described the idea that it comes from a resemblance to chicks as folk etymology.

Unless you found something else.

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I just read it on this article, I didn’t check other articles though (and it was the shape not the color).

I’ll have to see if any of my more reliable sources have a definitive etymology. Wikipedia also says English is the basis of the Japanese while explaining that the English is misinterpreted, but it doesn’t have a source linked to lay out the history.

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The fine line between spiritual and mentally ill is one character.
精神的 and 精神病

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…?

The fine line between fuck and luck is one letter

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“Spiritual” as in “spiritual experience” is more like 霊的 or 宗教的, if that’s what you were getting at.

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WK taught me these were the meanings, so I made a joke about meanings. That’s what I am getting at.

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My bad. Assumed it was meant as a mind blow.

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No worries. :slight_smile:

@Wantitled

Koujien lists it as 英語名chickpeaの訳語

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Interestingly enough, it does not mention that the English origin isn’t actually what the translation took it to mean. But it does then say that it resembles a chick('s head)… make up your mind 広辞苑! Citation still needed on the resemblance end, I guess.

Honestly it makes me less confident in Koujien overall.

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