Himojī (ひもじい – Hungry)

Himojī

If you are hungry and painful, you can express the feeling by using the Japanese ‘himojī‘ (ひもじい).

In the past in Japan, people thought that ‘hizō‘ (脾臓 – spleen) became sluggish when they were hungry.

Because of this, people call the feeling of hungry ‘hidarui‘ (ひだるい), which was made by combining two wrods: ‘hizō‘ (脾臓 – spleen) and ‘darui’ (だるい – sluggish).

However, since to be hungry was shameful, people said ‘himoji‘ (ひ文字 – hi character) as a code word of ‘hidarui.’

Later, ‘himoji‘ became the adjective ‘himojī.’