Atama ga Piman (Your Head is a Green Pepper)

Both

English

Japanese

Today, I will talk about the Japanese insult “atama ga piman,” whose literal meaning is “your head is a green pepper.”

今日は、野菜を使った悪口「頭がピーマン」を紹介します。

This phrase expresses something like that “you have no brains.”

この言葉は、「頭が空っぽ」ということを意味します。

The etymology is very simple: green peppers have large hollows in their insides.

語源は単純で、ピーマンの中身はすかすかだからです。

In a similar way, there is a Japanese insult “hanashi ga piman,” (your talk is a green pepper), which means “your talk is empty.”

同様に、「話の中身が無い」ことを意味する「話がピーマン」という言葉もあります。

Note that these phrases were popular in the 1970s, and we rarely use them today.

これらの言葉は1970年代に流行し、現在ではほとんど使われていないことに注意して下さい。

By the way, if you say just “piman” (a green pepper) to someone, it can be an insult that means “your have no brains” or “you’re empty.”

ちなみに、単に「ピーマン」と言っても「頭が空っぽ」「中身がない」などの悪口になり得えます。