The Language Detectives - find the Japanese equivalents!

Continuing on the topic of rain, I was curious about the turn of phrase:

“It’s raining cats and dogs.”

I found something directing me towards

土砂降 どしゃぶ り - downpour; pouring rain; cloudburst; pelting rain; heavy rain​

Jisho came up with an example sentence if you just search for “raining cats and dogs:”

土砂降 どしゃぶ りがながつづ くと、洗濯屋 せんたくやさんは、仕事しごとがはかどらず苦労くろうする。

When it continues raining cats and dogs for a long while, laundrymen have a hard time doing their work.

That sounds like a really apt approximation. Thanks! :smiley: :purple_heart:

1 Like

What about Sated or Satisfied?

For sated, I found a kanji: 飽 … but not a word. Apparently also means “bored of” or “tired of” according to Jisho.

Satisfied I found a bit more, but it seems to mostly be in regards to feelings of contentment.
Here are my best two guesses: 釈然 (しゃくぜん) to be complete; to be all present; to make a full set; to be satisfied (of conditions)​
or
満ち足りる (みちたりる) to be content; to have enough; to be happy; to be sufficient; to be satisfied​

3 Likes

I once discovered that “hit two birds with one stone” was borrowed as an idiom in Japanese.
In Japanese, it is: 一石二鳥 (いっせきにちょう), literally one stone, two birds.

3 Likes

This made me want to look up stuffed, to see if it would yield anything relating to feeling full after eating.

It didn’t. D:

I did come across:

はなまる - to have a stuffed nose; to have a stuffy nose​

1 Like

I think 満足 is quite a common way for refering to satisfaction. :yum:

腹一杯 comes to mind… but I’m sure I’ve heard something mixing 腹 and 爆発 … though it could just have been a joke :man_shrugging::sweat_smile:

2 Likes

In Germany we also use the small thing “ne?” in a casual way like Japanese do. Like saying “Das ist gut, ne?” Means literally “it’s good, isn’t it?”
いいですね〜

We have more words like this. I was very happy when I found out Japan does this kind of thing, too. They just do it more often and more smoothly I think. Here it always sounds a bit childish haha

3 Likes

I decided to look for Misogyny and Misandry. I found 男嫌い(おとこきらい) and 男性差別(だんせいさべつ). The first literally means man hate and the second means something like discrimination against men. The female equivalents are basically the same but replace 男 with 女 for 女嫌い(おんなきらい) and 女性差別(じょせいさべつ).

Guess those translate fairly well.

1 Like

Hello fellow Dutch person :slight_smile: (?)

A word I always wonder about if it exists in another language is “Gezellig

It’s a word that’s kinda hard to describe, it’s basically a mix of cozy, pleasant and sociable. This might not even be an exhaustive list of what that word describe, it can even describe a homely feeling.

Germany might have that word too, but I’m not completely sure. (According to Google it’s gesellig, or Gemütlich)

The English language just doesn’t have a word like it, which is a shame, as it’s a word I really love to use.

Would Japanese have an equivalent?

1 Like

“sociable” in the same word including cozy / pleasent seems to be the foreign element here considering japanese culture :laughing::laughing:
otherwise both 伸び伸び and even 懐かしい could aim at that feeling.

1 Like

Yep yep yep. I’ve not yet come across a word that can replace “gezellig” when you’re all together and it’s… well… gezellig! :sweat_smile:

Also: waves Hiya! Er zijn hier aardig wat Nederlanders

1 Like

Alright here we are again. I tried something I didn’t think would work: “in flagrante.” To my surprise, it exists. 現行犯 (げんこうはん).

1 Like

Oh yeah… I like Gemütlich. It’s true, we don’t have a word for it in English… but to me it brings up “comfy”… when you’re comfortable at home with a small intimate group of friends… Just close friends and some wine or coffee and a fire-place, or board games, or something like that… “Comfy and relaxing”… however that doesn’t really specify it’s a social setting, does it?

Is that the Danish hygge?

Also I don’t think there’s a good English word for the Brazilian saudade, but I don’t know if Japanese has one or not.

1 Like

English has no good single word for “to turn off”. You might use “stop”, but stopping something is different than turning it off.
In my local English dialect (Pennsylvania Dutch) we have the word “outen.” A person might outen the lights, or outen the car, or outen the computer. It is so nice to have a verb for this.

I suspect the reason why is that we have only been turning things off for less than 200 years, since the advent of machines. Even the phrase “turn off” probably comes from literally “turning” a valve. (I didn’t look it up, sorry.)

Ohh, it looks like Japanese has 消す(けす)! What a nice kanji! And a nice word.
image

2 Likes

Yes, that’s the kanji in 飽きる あきる to be fed up with; to be tired of

1 Like

Is it really a closed-lipped smile? I ain’t no Dutch, but I’ve been there and learned a word or two, and I’d guess that “glimlachen” means to smile with at least partially exposed teeth by the very definition of the “glim-” part.

That being said, “monkelen” could be a snigger or a smirk — what I understand is a closed-lipped smile.

1 Like

Type here. Use Markdown, BBCode, or HTML to format. Drag or paste images.

Or maybe 薄笑い (faint smile)? That was my first thought.

1 Like

Glimlach is most definitely used to indicate a closed-lipped smile in my region. You made me curious on the dictionary definition, and it says it’s smiling features without any audible laugh or other sounds of mirth. Interesting. :thinking:

That feels like a very archaic term. ^-^ Maybe still used in some parts of the country, but I’ve never encountered that word in speech, and maybe once in writing in my thirty years.

Looking up the definition, monkelen is also not a neutral, or even positive thing to do.

I’m seeing it defined as grinning in a cheeky/naughty way, or secretly laughing in self-satisfaction or mockery. Monkelen is also considered a synonym of meesmuilen, which means an evil or mocking laugh.

I’m also getting hits for use in Flemish, so I wonder if Belgium uses it more/differently. Very different Dutch words are still in circulation there that don’t get used here anymore.

And at some point today I hope to actually look up some Japanese words again, rather than my boring native tongue. :joy:

2 Likes

Interesting, thanks. I’ve enjoyed the excursus. And you actually nailed the region, even though the conversation took place in Gröningen, the speaker was indeed Belgian.

1 Like

Very true… you could use ‘to kill’ (as in ‘kill the lights’), but it’s a bit unnecessarily dramatic in most situations, and I can’t imagine it would sound natural for most things (you might say ‘kill the engine’ but I can’t imagine saying ‘kill the car’!).

I’m guessing 消す carried over from when lights were things that needed to be extinguished, and then just evolved into being a general ‘turn off’ word, whereas the same evolution didn’t occur in English.

gonna try to think up some good words - I like this thread!

3 Likes