Rōnyaku Nan-nyo (老若男女 - "Men and Women of All Ages")

Rōnyaku Nan-nyo

The four-character idiom 'rōnyaku nan-nyo' (老若男女) refers to men and women of all ages.

'Rō' (老) means "old," 'nyaku' (若) means "young," 'nan' (男) means "men" and 'nyo' (女) means "women."

That is to say, 'rōnakyu nan-nyo' literally means, everyone, young and old, men and women.

The idiom 男女 (meaning "men and women") is read as 'danjo', but its reading becomes 'nan-nyo' only in this four-character idiom.

Actually, I do not like this idiom very much, because I cannot speak it smoothly -- I will say 'rōnaku nyan-no' with a high probability.

老若男女

あらゆる層の人々を指す四字熟語に、「老若男女」があります。

「老」は "old"、「若」は "young"、「男」は "men"、「女」は "women" を意味します。

すなわち、「老若男女」は文字どおり、「老人も若者も、男性も女性も、すべての人々」を表しているというわけです。

「男女」だけだと「だんじょ」と読みますが、この四字熟語の中では「なんにょ」と読みます。

私は大抵「老若男女」を読む際に「ろうなくにゃんにょ」のように噛んでしまうので、この言葉はあまり好きではありません。

• That is to say, 'rōnakyu nan-nyo' literally means, everyone, young and old, men and women.
• That is to say, 'rōnaku nan-nyo' literally means, everyone, young and old, men and women.

• Actually, I do not like this idiom very much, because I cannot speak it smoothly -- I will say 'rōnaku nyan-no' with a high probability.
• Actually, I do not like this idiom very much, because I cannot speak it smoothly -- I will probably end up saying 'rōnaku nyan-no' instead of 'rōnaku nan-nyo'.