Word Play, Word Power: Part 4
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
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One of my favorite compounds is 月食 (gesshoku: lunar eclipse), which breaks down as moon + to eat. During a lunar eclipse, it looks as if something is eating the moon!
Given that, what do you think to eat + words means? Here’s the answer:
食言 (shokugen: to eat one’s words, break one’s promise)
to eat + words
Cute, isn’t it?! There’s a playful quality to many words with 言. So … let’s play!
Word Play
What sort of person “makes words”? A writer? A compiler of dictionaries?
作り言 (tsukurigoto: fabrication, lie, fiction) to make + words
Making words makes you a liar! The definition includes “fiction,” but the Japanese don’t have novelists in mind here. Click the link for a sample sentence containing 作り言.
For a Sample Sentence with 作り言 …
It’s important to have one’s say, and the following compound lets you do that:
言い立てる (iitateru: to state, to assert) to say + to stand
If you have your say while standing, you’re “taking a stand”! Nowadays, 言い立てる most commonly means “to criticize someone else” (i.e., in order to defend oneself). The expression also means “to spread rumors.”
One can reverse the compound and still have one’s say:
立言 (ritsugen: expression of one’s view) to stand + to say
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity | 3 Comments »
