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【No. 0626】Hige

Sep 4, 2016 03:32
Today, I will talk about the Japanese word "hige."

Hige means human's (especially man's) hair that grows above his upper lip (mustache), jaw (beard), or cheek (sideburn).

"髭" is often used as the kanji of "hige," but strictly speaking, "髭" means "mustache," "鬚" means "beard," and "髯" means "sideburn."

There are also three different words in English as well as the kanji.

The word "hige," which can show three different hair, seems to be unique to Japan.

By the way, it was considered that mustache bushi (Japanese samurai) in medieval Japan should grow their mustache, and bushi who have less mustache wore a false mustache.
ひげ

今日は「ひげ」という日本語を紹介します。

「ひげ」は、人間(特に男性)の口の上、あご、ほおなどに生える毛を意味します。

漢字は「髭」が使われることが多いですが、くちひげは「髭」、あごひげは「鬚」、ほおひげは「髯」のように使い分けられます。

英語も同じように、それぞれ異なる英単語が存在します。

一つの「ひげ」という言葉でくちひげ、あごひげ、ほおひげを表す言葉は日本語特有のもののようです。

ちなみに、日本の中世において武士は髭を蓄えるべきとされ、髭の薄い武士は付け髭をつけていたそうです。

Corrections (3)

No. 1 
  • The word "hige," which can show three different hair, seems to be unique to Japan.
  • The word "hige," which can show three different types of hair, seems to be unique to Japan.
  • By the way, it was considered that mustache bushi (Japanese samurai) in medieval Japan should grow their mustache, and bushi who have less mustache wore a false mustache.
  • By the way, it was considered that mustache bushi (Japanese samurai) in medieval Japan should grow their mustache, and bushi who had less mustache wore a false mustache.
Toru
Thank you so much for correcting my post! :)
No. 2 南蛮人
  • Today, I will talk about the Japanese word "hige."
  • Today, I will talk about the Japanese word "hige".
  • Hige means human's (especially man's) hair that grows above his upper lip (mustache), jaw (beard), or cheek (sideburn).
  • Hige means human's (especially man's male) hair that grows above his the upper lip (mustache), jaw (beard), or cheek (sideburn).

    if you start talking about "human" you should use "the" because you're speaking in general terms.

  • "髭" is often used as the kanji of "hige," but strictly speaking, "髭" means "mustache," "鬚" means "beard," and "髯" means "sideburn."
  • "髭" is often used as the kanji of "hige", but strictly speaking, "髭" means "mustache", "鬚" means "beard", and "髯" means "sideburn".

    punctuation stays outside the quotes when quoting a word.

  • There are also three different words in English as well as the kanji.
  • There are also three different words in English as well as just like the kanji.
  • The word "hige," which can show three different hair, seems to be unique to Japan.
  • The word "hige", which can show mean three different facial hair styles, seems to be unique to Japanese.
  • By the way, it was considered that mustache bushi (Japanese samurai) in medieval Japan should grow their mustache, and bushi who have less mustache wore a false mustache.
  • By the way, it was considered that mustache bushi (Japanese samurai) in medieval Japan should grow their mustache, and bushi who had less mustache wore a false mustache.

    "less mustache" sounds a bit weird but I can't think of something better.

Toru
Thank you very much always for correcting my post! (^^)
No. 3 Seralt
  • Hige means human's (especially man's) hair that grows above his upper lip (mustache), jaw (beard), or cheek (sideburn).
  • Hige refers to the hair that grows on the upper lip (mustache), jaw (beard), or cheek (sideburn).
  • "髭" is often used as the kanji of "hige," but strictly speaking, "髭" means "mustache," "鬚" means "beard," and "髯" means "sideburn."
  • "髭" is often used as the kanji for "hige," but strictly speaking, "髭" means "mustache," "鬚" means "beard," and "髯" means "sideburn."
  • The word "hige," which can show three different hair, seems to be unique to Japan.
  • The word "hige," which refers to three different types of hair, seems to be unique to Japanese.

    I'd argue that it's more a linguistic thing than a geographical thing.

  • By the way, it was considered that mustache bushi (Japanese samurai) in medieval Japan should grow their mustache, and bushi who have less mustache wore a false mustache.
  • By the way, it was considered that mustache bushi (Japanese samurai) in medieval Japan should grow their mustaches, and bushi who have thinner mustaches wore false mustaches.

    general/generic is usually in the plural.

One of my gr 6 students would routinely ask if I knew how to write the kanji for ひげ。 ... I wonder if he knew there were actually three different candidates.

Toru
Thank you so much for correcting my post!
I think that most Japanese people don't know there are three kanji for ひげ, because we usually use only "髭". If he knew three different kanji, it's amazing :)

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