Thursday, February 19, 2009

齟齬

sogo
inconsistency, frustration, contradiction, failure, discord


I was trying to find an old expression that I fell in love with when I first moved to Japan, back in 1988. I knew that the implied meaning was 'frustration', which is how I came upon 齟齬. I was instantly struck. two characters I had NEVER seen before, yet clearly related (they both have the same left-hand radical, which means 'tooth'). I looked them up.
so is also used in the verb kamu (to bite), although there are other, more common, characters used for that verb as well. interestingly enough, it also means 'uneven' and 'disagree'... which makes me wonder who thinks these meanings up... =)
go simply means 'irregular teeth' (think, Austin Powers).
so now I have a vision of being bitten by someone with a mouth full of odd-angled teeth. frustration and discord, indeed!

by the way, the phrase I wanted to find was:
地団駄を踏む
zidanda wo humu
stamp one's feet in frustration, literally, to tread the same worn ground beneath one's feet
for some reason, this phrase always makes me think of an angry turtle, stamping up and down on the same patch of mud but never going anywhere...

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