Skip to content

【No. 1957】Yabuisha (藪医者 - Bad Doctor)

Sep 4, 2021 16:16
Yabuisha

A doctor who often makes mistakes in treatment or diagnosis is called yabuisha (藪医者) in Japanese.

Since yabu (藪) means "shrub," and isha (医者) means "doctor," the literal meaning of yabuisha (藪医者) is a "shrub doctor."

There are several theories about the etymology of yabuisha.

A theory says that it came from the word yabu (野巫), which means a rural doctor who can perform only dubious treatment using divination. Another theory says that it came from the proverb yabu wo tsutsuite hebi wo dasu (藪をつついて蛇を出す - meaning "to do unnecessary things and make it worse").
藪医者

治療や診断が下手な医者のことを、「藪医者」といいます。

「藪」は "shrub"、「医者」は "doctor" を意味するので、「藪医者」の文字どおりの意味は "shrub doctor" です。

実はこの言葉、語源についてはさまざまな説がありますが、正確なことはわかっていません。

占いやまじないと使った怪しげな治療をする田舎の医者を指す「やぶ(野巫)」から来ているという説や、「藪をつついて蛇を出す」ということわざから来ているという説があります。

Corrections (1)

No. 1 fortRedBorder
  • A theory says that it came from the word 'yabu' (野巫), which means a rural doctor who can perform only dubious treatment using divination.
  • One theory says that it comes from the word 'yabu' (野巫), which means a rural doctor who can perform only dubious treatment using divination.
  • Another theory says that it came from the proverb 'yabu wo tsutsuite hebi wo dasu' (藪をつついて蛇を出す - meaning "to do unnecessary things and make it worse").
  • Another theory says that it comes from the proverb 'yabu wo tsutsuite hebi wo dasu' (藪をつついて蛇を出す - meaning "to do unnecessary things and make it worse").

Just a small detail to watch out for, you should be consistent in your use of single or double quotation marks.

Nonetheless, this was an interesting read. Thanks for sharing!

Toru
Thank you for the correction!
On lang-8, I have used single quotes temporarily instead of italics for Japanese terms. They will be modified when I move them to my blog. :)

Comments