Doji(どじ – Stupid/Idiot)

Both

English

Japanese

I am probably a person called ‘doji‘ (どじ).

恐らく私は「どじ」です。

Doji means a stupid mistake or a person who often makes such a mistake.

「どじ」とは、間の抜けた失敗や、そのような失敗をする人を指す言葉です。

Its etymology has not been obvious yet, but there are various theories as follows:

正確なことはわかっていませんが、「どじ」の語源は以下のように諸説あります。

A theory says that it comes from ‘donchi‘ (鈍遅), which means that something is slow and dull.

遅くて鈍いことを意味する「鈍遅（どんち/どぢ）」が変化したという説。

A theory says that it comes from ‘tochiru‘ (とちる), which means to make a mistake.

失敗することを意味する「とちる」が変化したという説。

A theory says that it is short for ‘tochimenbou‘ (とちめんぼう), which means to panic.

あわてるという意味の「とちめんぼう」を略したという説。

A theory says that it is short for ‘dochiguchi‘ (どちぐち), which means that something is vague.

はっきりしないさまを意味する「どちぐち」を略したという説。

Incidentally, this term is similar to ‘manuke‘ (間抜け – stupid) and ‘bonkura‘ (ぼんくら – Idiot) that I introduced before.

この言葉は、以前紹介した「間抜け」や「ぼんくら」という言葉と似ています。