Thursday, July 10, 2008

Japanese Language Trivia of the Day:

It's time to start packing up and getting read to move out of my house, so today's trivia is a 四字熟語 that is only ever used in one, very specific situation.

天地無用
てんち　むよう
tenchi　muyou

I struggled to find out exactly why this means what it does for DAYS before just giving up and accepting it, something I often have to do with Japanese things that I don't understand.

The kanji translate loosely as "the futility of all things in heaven and earth" and here's what it means:

THIS. SIDE. UP.

*This also happens to be the name for an anime that uses the odd meaning as a play on words. The main character's name is Tenchi, so it can be read as "No need for Tenchi."
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6 comments:

  1. DefendershipJuly 10, 2008 at 12:38 PM

    Holy crap - I watched Tenchi Muyo YEARS ago, and had NO IDEA that's what the meaning was.

    Daily Yoji, will you have my babies?

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  2. ClaytonianJuly 10, 2008 at 4:49 PM

    I knew that factoid, so I will have those babies now. nom nom nom

    If you think about this one, if a box is not properly aligned with heaven and earth, the contents get quashed and it is useless.

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  3. ClaytonianJuly 10, 2008 at 4:55 PM

    I just used some google-fu to find something about it at a site: "天地反転無用などの短縮形" also, rikaichan says 天地 can mean "top and bottom".

    further reading: http://oshiete1.goo.ne.jp/qa68943.html

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  4. Bobby JudoJuly 10, 2008 at 5:51 PM

    yeah, I found all that stuff too during my initial search, but what drives me nuts is why 無用, which translates as "is unnecessary" in most situations mutates into "is unacceptable" here.

    I found some stuff about how 無用 is used to mean　してはいけない, but nothing about why it means that.

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  5. ClaytonianJuly 10, 2008 at 10:04 PM

    seems like just a case of related concepts to me. more findings:
    確かに、現在の日本では分かりにくい（どころか、逆の意味に感じる）言葉だと思います。
    個人的な感覚では、早く死語にならないかなぁ。と思っています。
    .
    まちがって、ひっくり返してしまって、中身が壊れたら、大変困ってしまいますから。
    .
    無用＝用がない＝どうでもいい。に感じてしまいます。
    すると「天地無用」＝上下はどうでもいい。に感じてしまいます。
    .
    残って役立つケースはＴＶのクイズの問題として使われる場合など？。
    .
    逆にクイズの問題になるような慣用句は、（現在では）不便すぎることの証明。
    であると考えています。
    （ごく普通に意味が分かったら、全くクイズになりませんから・・・）
    .
    個人的にはこの言葉を、「ひっくり返すと、中の物が使い物にならなくなる。」
    というこじつけ的な解釈で一応、覚えています。
    （何かのテスト等で出たら困りますから）
    .
    多くの人が、簡単に誤解してしまうような言葉は、（現在においては）不便すぎだと思います。
    .
    仮に「上下厳守」とかだったら、多分、誤解できないとおもうのですが・・・。

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  6. Bobby JudoJuly 10, 2008 at 10:23 PM

    Damn, Clay. NICE work.

    ReplyDelete