Kinda 和製英語：Freeter

During a recent playthrough of Pocket Academy I noticed some things. Things that hadn't latched on the first time around. That is the general purpose of subsequent playthroughs, so huzzah. One particular word leapt out at me. "Spectacular! Another 和製英語 for the scrolls," thought I. But it was a little more complicated than that.

There is an ever-expanding trove of katakana words attached to the Japanese language. Many are obvious enough.  I imagine that「ハンバーガー」has befuddled relatively few who have toiled to learn the runes. But then there are others; they are words which, for we natives of the English tongue at least, straddle the boundaries of "Whathewhat?" and "This...could be of English origin...?" They often claim cloudy or error-laden origins. There are so many English-derived katakana words, you see, that specimens of other inspiration can be somewhat distressing. 

And so it was with 「フリーター」. At first I thought it was clearly 和製英語. I know enough English to know that "free" is definitely a word we use. A quick dictionary look-up revealed that a フリーター is someone who is a permanent part-time worker. I suppose they drift from part-time job to part-time job. But how does "free" relate to this? There must be something else at work here. 

I condemned this digital child to a life of retail vagrancy, for you.

As much as I love the new age of Google search, a part of me still appreciates the simplicity of my good old electronic dictionary. So that was where I first turned for answers.

"Does this qualify as 'old school' yet?" I pondered.

Ah-ha! So it's ドイツ語 (German), then. Well played, Japanese. But hold on moment - the entry says 和製 free + Arbeiter ドイツ)の略. So it's 'Japanese' use of "free" + some German (that is the origin of アルバイト, by the way - another troubling katakana denizen). 

So it's....Engerman? And so we do ultimately turn to Google for help.

Wikipedia has the story. It's a bit of a read, so we'll just skip to the bottom line of what we're interested in:

語源は

英語のフリー free（「時間の自由な」という意味の略）

ドイツ語で労働を意味し、日本語では非正規雇用を意味するアルバイト Arbeit

「～する人」という意味の英語 er、または同じ意味のドイツ語 er

の3つをつなげた和製の造語（「フリー・アルバイター」の略称）である。

So 

1. English's "free" + 

2. German's "arbeit" + 

3. Engish's "er" (someone who does something) 

= フリー・アルバイター. Then we shorten, which almost completely removes the German part but leaves a sewn together incomprehensible English result. フリーター. Freeter. That's 和製英語-y enough for me.

Word.

和製英語: Black Companies (and Sukiya)

According to bengo4.com (that's 弁護士, "lawyer".com), a reporter recently asked the president of Zensho Holdings, the company that owns popular gyudon chain Sukiya, what he thought of critics labeling it a "black company."




そこで、テレビ東京「ワールドビジネスサテライト」の大浜平太郎キャスターが「ブラック企業と言われても仕方がない面もあったな、という思いはあるか？」とたずねたのだ。

The TV Tokyo reporter essentially asked "Are you just thinking that nothing can really be done about it being called a black company?"

First off, what is a ブラック企業 (or ブラック会社)? It doesn't sound good, does it? For words like this, I often like to do a Wikipedia search and see if there's a link to an English article, which will often provide a direct translation or at least some insight into the term. Literally translated as "black companies," these are workplaces that subject their workers to socially unacceptable conditions. Wikipedia's English page brings us to: "Sweatshop."

In case you're curious, the president basically responded that black and white are subjective determinations. Of course the company may have its problems to be addressed, but he thinks the term "black company" is being unfairly applied, and so do the companies' employees. And he gosh darnit wishes people would quit applying that label. The company cannot effectively defend itself, as detractors will simply disregard its protests, so he asks for everyone's understanding.

和製英語：Chicken Race

Living in America, I naturally encounter less Japanese now. That doesn't keep me from learning new "Japanglish" - also known as 和製英語 (わせいえいご) - that is, English words that have been co-opted by the Japanese language, but usually differing in meaning either slightly or to a strange degree.

A while ago at work, during one of our daily meetings (which are held in Japanese), my colleagues were discussing the current conflict between AT&T and the FCC. Without throwing too much telecom technobabble at you, the Federal Communications Commission wants to limit the bigger players in an upcoming airwave license auction, meaning that AT&T and Verizon wouldn't be able to participate to the degree that they may want to. AT&T has threatened to boycott the auction, knowing that the government needs to raise as much money as they can, in the hopes of changing the FCC's mind. The FCC thinks AT&T is bluffing.

So my cohorts were referring to this showdown as a game of chicken. They were using the Japanese expression, however, which I was unfamiliar with at the time. I'm glad they said it a few times, because I couldn't pick up what they were saying right away.

Well, it turns out that "playing chicken" in Japanese is 「チキンレース」. "Chicken race."

Wikipedia indicates that it can also be called 「チキンゲーム」("chicken game"), but that in Japan it's typically called "chicken race."

Oh look - I have successfully injected politics into this informative article about Japanese!

和製英語: High Touch

Another English Japanese word that took me by surprise was the term 「ハイタッチ」. Apparently Japanese is the only language that uses the expression "high touch" to describe what we in English call a "high five."

I think the reasoning behind "high touch" is self apparent, but I am wondering when and how the change came about. Unfortunately Google search has failed me for once. Wikipedia notes that Japanese is unique in its usage of the expression but doesn't have any further explanation.

Hmm...

和製英語: T-Back

You might not think you'd come across this word very often, but believe it or not (and though I can't place any specific instances), this is one I've heard quite a few times. I swear it isn't part of my normal repertoire, though!

What the Japanese know as a "T-back" (Tバック) , we know as...

Yes, the noble thong. I guess the name is apt enough - not really much need to ponder the meaning of the Japanese for this one. 

Card...ball?

No, I'm not talking about not some amazing new J-game involving cards and balls (though that actually sounds like it could be awesome). See, there's a Japanese word that has confounded me since I learned it years ago, and that is 「ダンボール」. "Cardboard," in English. Usually when you come across a katakana word drawn from English, you can tell fairly quickly what the base word is or at least guess what it's getting at. Even with 和製英語. With this one, I really had no idea.

So, I finally decided to Google it. 

The 「ダン」, as it turns out, is 「段」, which can mean tier(ed). This is most likely because cardboard is corrugated, and if you were to look at a cross-section, you would see two or more little layers kind of connected by ridges. Fair enough.

As for the 「ボール」part, which looks like "ball," I came across one explanation offered at Yahoo Answers-type websites, and one that Wikipedia kind of hinted at that I am going to proffer.

1) Whoever coined the Japanese word for "cardboard" misheard or had trouble pronouncing "board" and said 「ボール」(ball) instead. It caught on and spread, and voila. This was an answer I came across multiple times across the webiverse.

2) 「ボール」is actually short for 「ボールド」. I think this is plausible since so many words in Japanese can be and often are shortened. Wikipedia didn't explicity say this, but it did say the origin of 「段ボール」's 「ボール」 is the English word "board."

So there you have it. Man, now I wish "cardball" were an actual Japanese game.

(Source) If you drop it, you get smacked in the crotch.

和製英語: Reform

Another Japenglish word I remember coming across now and then is 「リフォーム」. Although from the English "reform," it actually means "renovation" or "remodeling."

Often usually there seems to be some reason why the Japanese adopted these slightly off adaptations of English words (sometimes due to an old usage or a discrepancy between American and British English). So it's possible that in the U.K. people don't renovate their homes but actually "reform" them, I don't know. In American English, however, "reform" is most often used in the context of changing something bad about a person or an intangible (like a way of governing). You often hear about reforming healthcare laws or immigration policy.

In Japanese, however, you get something like: 

その店は来週からリフォームすると聞いた。

(I heard that shop will be under renovation from next week.)

和製英語: High tension

I can't remember when I first heard this one, but I'm sure I must have been confused. In English, when we talk about "tension," it usually holds a more negative connotation (unless maybe you're talking about "sexual tension"). There's often a high degree of tension between two individuals who don't get along, for example, right?

In Japanese, "high tension" or 「ハイテンション」 has a positive meaning - to be excited or enthusiastic. I suppose this flows from the fact that when we talk about electricity, "high tension" means we're talking about a lot of energy.

An example from ALC:

家族に心配を掛けないよう、ハイテンションで、明るく振る舞うように努めています。
(I strive to be bright and cheerful so as not to let my family worry.)

和製英語: Pinch

A Japanese friend of mine posted the following status update on Facebook some time ago:


めっちゃ幸せな気分になりました！充電ピンチやけどwウィラーコンセント付いてへんかな!?(*^^*)

There's kind of a lot going on in this construction, but I want to focus in on the use of 「ピンチ」 here. I'm not exactly sure what my friend was referring to here or why he was so happy, but it seems he was having battery issues with something. He's roughly saying something like:


"I'm in a great mood! Though I'm in trouble with my battery charger lol I don't suppose Willer has outlets?!"

I believe he's talking about Willer buses here - that's one of the bigger highway bus companies. 

Anyway, the Japanese use of 「ピンチ」looks to be derived from the English expression "in a pinch." It basically means trouble, a problem, or a tight spot. Not too far off from the English, I guess, except that as far as I can tell it only has that one meaning and isn't used in quite the same situations as we would use it in (i.e. I'm not sure how natural it sounds to say you're in a pinch with your battery charger or "in a battery charger pinch").

Edit 7/23/2012: As Jturningpin points out in the comments section, I really should have said "(Battery) charge" instead of charger. Charger would be 充電器 (じゅうでんき).

和製英語: Miss

和製英語 (わせいえいご) refers to Japanese words that have been imported from English but with altered meaning. This is another topic that has been covered before, both by myself and others (Daniel, Orchid), and it can provide much frustration for native English speakers. パンツ and ジュース (which don't actually mean "pants" as Americans would understand the word, or "juice" as any English speaker would as far as I know) are big agitators for me personally.

Another one, that I just came across today, is 「ミス」. Most commonly, this is used to indicate an error or failure. I've heard it used in the context of typing ミス (yes, typing mistakes), and spotted it in this headline in a much sadder usage: 心臓手術ミス、4歳男児死亡. It says that a 4-year old boy died during heart surgery due to a 「手術ミス」. That is, a surgical error. What a depressing example of ミス, I know...