January 25, 2006

Slang for "Cunt"

Yes, I was one of those people when I was a kid, the kind of person who bought scale models of trains and set them up in elaborate displays in my parents' basement, the remnants of which linger to this day. I've always been fascinated by trains, but mostly of the outdoor variety. It's no secret I pretty much loath undergrounds; whether they be subway or El or Metro or Tube or 地下鉄, I pretty much hate waiting for trains underground.
With one exception, of course. Summer, as most of you may already know, is really hot; I mean damn hot. One day I was standing in the station by MeiDai (名大, N.B. not pictured above), or Nagoya University for all you lamers out there, when just before the train was to enter the station a sudden rush of wind nearly knocked me on my ass. I gave the phenomenon a name: 地下鉄風, pronounced chikateffū. It took me awhile to figure out a pronunciation, because of the peculiar way the pronunciation of Chinese characters changes in Japanese. For example, the full name of the aformentioned institution of higher learning is actually Nagoya Daigaku (名古屋大学) but is often shortened to MeiDai for whatever reason. You see the first character in Nagoya can also be read as mei. Thus that last character in my neologism is usually pronounced kaze, but here is pronounced , because it's being attached to a word with a Sino-japanese pronunciation. Interestingly, though, most of these "Chinese" words were in fact coined by the Japanese and later became thought of as Chinese.

Like the word "pussy." Any good etymological dictionary will tell you that pussy is in fact slang for cunt and that the word "cunt" wasn't even considered obscene until the 17th century. All of this goes to show that digging around in word nerd type things is far more salacious than you ever realized.

2 Comments:

At 9:49 PM, Blogger Nicholas Theisen said...

a sudden rush of wind nearly knocked me on my ass. I gave the phenomenon a name: 地下鉄風, pronounced chikateffū.

But, if you insist on literality, "ground-under-iron-wind." Or, as babelfish got eerily correct, "subway wind."

And a friend has noted that it would more likley be pronounced chikateppū, which I don't like the sound of in the least.

 
At 11:07 AM, Blogger Michael K. said...

New post, new post, new post!

Geeble-gobble, one of us! Geeble-gobble, one of us!

 

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