Vocabulary
Dragon Quest II
- 挫ける・to be disheartened, to lose heart, to be dispirited, to be crushed (emotionally)
(commonly written using kana)
To aru kagaku no rērugan
- 人質・hostage
- ましてや・much less, to say nothing of
- へこたれる・to lose heart
- 愉快犯・crime committed for fun
- どんづまり・dead end, end of the line
- 腕試し・trying one’s ability, try one’s hand at
- 無闇・thoughtless, reckless, indiscriminate
(commonly spelled using kana) - 遺留・leaving behind
- 遺留品・item left behind (i.e. at a crime scene or after death)
- 避けて(は)通れない・unavoidable, inevitable
- 提唱・proposal
- 譬え話・allegory, fable, parable
(譬 commonly spelled using kana) - 手っ取り早い・quick, prompt
- 風物詩・1) seasonal poem; 2) feature of the season, seasonal tradition
- 素性・1) birth, lineage, parentage; 2) identity, background
- 頓挫・setback, deadlock, standstill
- 劣情・carnal desire, animal passions
- 催す・1) to hold (an event); 2) to feel (an emotion)
- 起伏・undulation, ups and downs
- 起伏に乏しい・featureless, dull
- 欠陥・defect, fault, flaw, deformity
- 端くれ・1) scrap; 2) unimportant person, person in the bottom rung
- 年貢・land tax, annual tribute
- 年貢の納め時・time to pay the piper
- 世間・world, society, people, the public
- 世間知らず・naïve, ignorant of the ways of the world
- ペチャパイ・flast-chested
- 闇雲に・recklessly, haphazardly, at random
- 快気・recovery
LEVEL5 (song)
- 巡り合う・to meet by chance, to happen across
(巡 is commonly spelled using kana) - ありのまま・as it is, undisguised, unvarnished
- 手繰る・to haul in
- 手繰り寄せる・to haul in
- 手繰り上げる・to haul in
- 手繰り込む・to haul in
- 解き明かす・to uncover, to solve, to reveal
- 誓い合う・to make a joint vow, to swear together
- 渦・whirlpool, swirl, eddy, vortex, amelstrom
Other
- もよい・showing signs of
- 雨もよい・1) showing signs of upcoming rain; 2) raining on and off
- 雪もよい・1) showing signs of upcoming snow; 2) snowing on and off
- 心地・1) feeling, sensation, mood; 2) how it feels to do (appended to masu-stem)
- 猛者・tough guy, fearless fighter, can-do-person
Esoteric wisdom and/or my ramblings
Dragon Quest II
I’m approaching the end of the game, and in an effort to buff myself up for the final battles, I had to restart the game and load using the previously mentioned 復活の呪文, which is to say a long string of kana used as a save password.
I actually failed in my first entry attempt; I must’ve gotten a character wrong.
At this point, I was starting to feel disheartened, but I gave it another attempt, and the save game wizard told me:
It has indeed proved to be quite the つらい旅 – I’m currently grinding after a failed run at the boss – but I won’t stop now! I will play all the Dragon Quest games in order, so that I can then complain about how kids these days have it too easy!
To aru shitagi kurai de ōgesa
Much to my delight, the show suddenly decided to get good about midway through season 1; I think the story arc that fans tell new viewers to hold out for is starting to reveal itself.
However, now that we’ve had our dramatic mid-season finale, I suspect that the show may soon start using a new opening theme, so I’ve started learning its lyrics in preparation. LEVEL5 -judgelight- isn’t quite as good as Only my railgun, but it’s still a certified bop.
避けて(は)取れない
This seems like quite a useful phrase.
Similar other constructs such as なくてはいけない / なくてはならない / ないとだめ, it seems you can vary the components a bit while preserving the meaning. Jisho only lists 避けて(は)通れない, but the version used in the show was:
避けて通ることの通ることのできないものがハイゼンベルクが提唱した不確定原理を基にする量子論だ。
Something that can’t be avoided is the quantum theory founded on the uncertainty principle postulated by Heisenberg.
Speaking of which:
提唱
This word is glossed as “advocacy, proposal”, and can be used to describe advocating for a policy change and the like.
However, it seems it is also often used in relation to theories, models and perspectives, in places where we might use phrases such as “proposed by”, “put forward by”, “developed by” or “introduced by” in English.
For example:
ダーウィンの提唱した進化論
the theory of evolution proposed by Darwin
アインシュタインが提唱した一般相対性理論
the general theory of relativity put forward by Einstein
どちらも、ドイツの物理学者アルベルト・アインシュタイン（1879～1955）によって提唱されました。
Both [the special and general theory of relaitivity] were developed by German physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
ノイマンの提唱した原理に基づくコンピューター
a computer based on principles proposed by [von] Neumann
マルクスが提唱した歴史観
the view of history advocated for by Marx
頓挫
Hey, look; it’s the kanji from 挫ける! But here, it’s actually used! And it uses the same reading as 座!
I guess I’ll remember that if somebody sits (座) on my fingies (扌), that’ll be quite a setback, and it will make me feel disheartened. (Especially if I don’t have a canopy (广) for shelter.)
Other
雨もよい / 雪もよい
Apparently, the もよい in these phrases is related to 催す, which was another one of my new words for this post (although in that context it was in relation to carnal passions, not inclement weather).
However, it seems this etymology has fallen into obscurity, to the point where a new form of this term has appeared: (雨/雪)模様.
Furthermore, the meaning of these words has shifted somewhat: While it can still be used to mean that it looks like it might rain/snow, it can also mean that there is intermittent rain/snow, or where there are spots of rainy/snowy weather here and there.
Due to this ambiguity, the NHK notes that when they use these terms, they try to provide supplementary descriptions to disambiguate.
心地
This word is fun in part because it screws up the reading of 心, reminding you that you are never safe when reading kanji.
However, it’s also kind of a useful word for describing how it feels to do various things:
- 着心地・feel when wearing something
- 履き心地・feel when wearing something (lower body)
- 座り心地・how something feels to sit on
(Mind the rendaku, and remember: You are never safe.)
Example from Weblio:
着心地のよくない制服
an uncomfortable uniform
I actually had an opportunity to try this word out at a language café yesterday when trying to describe the chairs in an aiport lounge in Bangkok … but unfortunately, I couldn’t quite remember it, so I ended up saying something like
「座り。。。座りもよい。。。っや、違う。。。感じのいい椅子」
Fortunately, the group leader understood what I was going for, and asked 「座り心地？」, and then proceeded to write 心地 on the whiteboard.
Hopefully, this experience will help the word stick in my mind.
あっ！偶然ね！
猛者
This word is interesting both for its irregular reading and for its range of definitions:
- tough guy; wild one; fearless fighter [Jisho]
- remarkable talent [Wiktionary]
- stalwart; tough guy; veteran [Weblio]
I guess the common thread is sort of a person who has challenged themselves repeatedly and is still carrying on.
I found this word in a recent Reddit discussion, where カプコン電子の猛者たち was translated as “Capcom’s Electronic Warriors”, albeit with the clarification that “Capcom’s seasoned veteran team” might get the idea across better.
In the article that spawned the thread, the word 猛者たち was romanized as mouzatachi. However, while もうざ is a valid reading, it is apparently quite archaic; perhaps useful if you want to sound like a Heian period samurai or something.
I found a video discussing the book, and it definitely sounds like they’re saying もさたち. Furthermore, the book often comes with a belly band* that explicitly writes the title with furigana as カプコン電子の猛者たち.
(If you don’t know what a “belly band” is … well, neither did I until just now. It’s the strip/band of paper that’s sometimes wrapped around book covers when you buy them, smaller than the dust jacket and usually with some advertising message.
The Japanese word for this is apparently 帯, or 本の帯 for extra clarity.)
Example sentences:
「粒子加速器」を自作した猛者現る
Man makes own “particle accelerator”
(translaton via Wiktionary)
ブラウザで動作するマルチタスク対応DOSを自作した猛者が現れる
Man makes own multitasking-compatible DOS that operates in web browsers
(translaton via Wiktionary)
この空手部は猛者ぞろいだ.
The members of this karate club are all tough fighters.
(translation via Weblio)
