Me neither until a few days ago.
This game I played has an adult setting and a kid setting. They’re オトナむき and コドモむき. What does the muki bit mean? All I’m getting from google is “Peel” and “Direction”
Definition #2 on Jisho Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary
Just to give you a rough way of thinking about it, 向く (the source verb) broadly means ‘to face’ or ‘to be directed towards’. You know how we say things like ‘client-facing staff’ in English? Yeah, I guess you could say the idea is similar, just that the notion of ‘facing’ is extended to mean ‘being oriented towards/tailored for’ a certain group. I guess you could say that this usage is about defining a ‘target audience’? (Targeting requires direction too, see?) (FALSE, or at least imprecise, even if the notion of direction might remain helpful and relevant for understanding the link between 向き’s literal and figurative meanings. See below.)
I would just be careful with a usage like “target audience”. 向き, being derived from the intransitive 向く is like “suitable for”. 向け, being derived from the transitive 向ける is like “intended for”. So I think for describing a target audience, you’d use 向け, not 向き.
Here’s an answer on HiNative about this. I’ll copy over the two example sentences. (Funny enough, they are very similar to the use cases I was thinking of.)
この商品は子ども向きです。
このテレビ番組は子ども向けです。
Hm… fair enough. That’s a very logical breakdown and justification of the difference. When I learnt these words (or rather, suffixes), I didn’t see the difference in how they were used, and I wasn’t fluent enough (or perhaps just not hardworking enough) to check the monolingual dictionary definitions. I mean, yes, ‘suitable for’ (for 向き) and ‘(designed) for’ (for 向け) are two of the translations I came across in my EN-JP dictionary, but I felt as though those two things weren’t too different in English, so I’ve always treated the two words as synonyms. I also haven’t come across the two often enough in real usage to notice the difference. I’m fluent enough to read many definitions now though, so I should have done my due diligence.
In any case, thanks for the correction. That helps, and I learnt something. While I don’t really like the idea that I’ll have to depart from the literal meaning of ‘to face’ or ‘to be oriented’ (in an intransitive rather than passive sense) in order to explain what 向き means, it seems that even the Japanese dictionary I have does it for this particular usage:
I’ll fix my original post now. My apologies to anyone who was misled by my answer. @f3lix, I’m sorry for my mistake. Please take note of this additional nuance.
Apparently 五分 can mean both 50% and 5% - how does that work? & not cause misunderstandings?
Was a little surprised, but you’re right. Without the furigana it can also mean 5 minutes and 1/5 of something in a fraction so that would be largely context depend, but I would say percentages would simply use an Arabic numeral + % sign.
I keep hearing わきつぶし in Minecraft streams. I discovered that it uses these kanji 湧き潰し.
潰す means to crush or flatten. 湧く means to well up, so the most literal translation would be something like “well up and flatten”. I though it might have something to do with flattening terrain to build something on it, but though I heard them say they were doing it with torches on a couple of occasions, so perhaps it means to light up a surface of land.
Does anybody have a clear translation? Dictionaries and translation tools don’t seem to have a definition for this compound word, only its parts.
It appears to be Minecraft jargon. The first result I got in searching gave an explanation.
湧き潰しとは、モンスターの出現を阻止する役割があります。
Basically, it’s doing things to prevent enemies from appearing.
Thanks. That makes sense. Torches work, but this word seems to encompass all other techniques to prevent enemies from appearing as well.
I guess the correct English definitions to use for those words would be “appear” for 湧き and “thwart, block” for 潰す.
Yeah I suppose the equivalent English jargon would be “spawn blocking”, which probably is confusing to people who don’t play video games. It’s always neat to find out what the Japanese terms are.
Maybe this isn’t a quick or short question after all, but…
Does anyone know the etymology or the reason why this pair of verbs has the readings 背く and 背ける rather than せむくand せむける?
I know there’s a few of those 〇〇むく verbs, like 傾く, so I was thinking these probably have the same むく thing going on. Was just wondering why it’s そ instead of せ.
The wikitionary entry for 背く - Wiktionary, the free dictionary literally has the following in it tho:
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. […] Particularly: “< 背を向く?”)
So maybe it’s still a mystery?
I think the sounds in 背を向く, せをむく, drifting together into そむく over time makes total sense!
It’s kind of hard to even say せをむく quickly without sounding a bit like you’re saying そむく, after all.
かたむく may well have formed the same way, as かたをむく, but the を just ran into the た and got absorbed with that one.
That’s my speculation anyway!
One of those sound shifts! Yes, that makes sense!
Hehe, Superior Sound Theory : a > o > e, which is kind of true isn’t it?
Note my speculation might be wrong though.
Searched 背く 語源 and got that, which points out that そ with that kanji is used in other words like そびら and そがい
and wiktionary has different etymologies for かたむく…
(I could buy せを forming those other words too and that reading in the first place though)
What’s the difference between a tent and a yurt? I had never heard the word yurt before I saw the radical. Is the specific definition important for the radical?
Why is 三匹 さんびき and 四匹 よんひき? To me it doesn’t seem to make any sense that these two don’t have matching rendaku (not to mention that ひ after ん usually changes to ぴ…)
This is a yurt:
A tent, meanwhile, is usually envisioned as something triangular with two flat sides that allow the rain to run off. I guess the idea is just that the top of 度 looks more like the side of a yurt than a tent. If that helps you remember the shape, then yeah, I guess it could be important, or at least useful. That aside though, no, I guess knowing the difference isn’t that important.
For the same reason that we have さんびゃく and よんひゃく among numbers. As an article I just read about it said,「例外の例外です!」(It’s an exception among exceptions.) I guess there is no clear reason.