A collection of Japanese expressions, words and other amusing bits and pieces I discovered on my Japanese learning journey.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
V Neck, T Intersection and the number Ten
You know how in English we sometime use a letter only for the shape of it?
Like, U magnet, V neck, T shirt and even "one Oh one" instead of "one zero one"...
So check out this word in Japanese.
Japanese: 十字
Reading: juuji
Meaning: cross
Literally: the letter (kanji) 十
The meaning of the letter is the number ten, but that's not the point. Clearly it is used here only for it's shape and would have probably been used even if the meaning was fried melon.
In English, we could have called a cross a "straight X" (or "tilted X", depending how you look at it) or maybe a "jumbo plus" :D.
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And the funny thing is - they call a Phillips screwdriver プラスドライバー, which is a total 和製英語. They should have put a 十 there as well. :-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, and I saw the word マイナスのねじ回し for the flat bladed screwdriver.
ReplyDeleteThe both should be called like:
十字ねじ回し
一字ねじ回し