しがない

siganai
deplorable, humble, modest, little

---

Used to belittle one's own position, home, or occupation (or even someone else's position, business, or home, when you want to be rude). As far as I can tell there is no kanzi character for the し part, so it must be idiomatic.

いささか

isasaka
a little, slightly, somewhat

---

I am beginning to realize that there is a dazzling array of adverbs in Japanese that mean 'somewhat' or 'a little bit'. I was happy with 少し (sukosi) and 少々 (syousyou), not to mention 一寸 (tyotto, more usually written as ちょっと).

初歩的

syohoteki
elementary, basic, rudimentary

---

I get the sense that this was used to translate Sherlock Holmes' utterance: It's elementary!, because the detective and her assistant in the work I am translating now use it now and then in an almost referential way.

収束

syuusoku
coming together, gathering and bundling, convergence

---

I also get the sense that this can mean closure, because it was used, in one in instance, in opposition to the notion of a dimensional door's opening.

真相

sinsou
truth, true situation, reality

---

Note that this means reality in terms of what is true. There is another term for reality, 現実 (genzitu), that implies the real world in the present sense. I'm sure both terms have their roots in Buddhist philosophy and I'm not going to dive into that now.

どことなく

doko to naku
vaguely, somewhat

---

I found this interesting because it looks like it literally means something like, where and not. =)

脅威

kyoui
threat, menace

---

This should have been easy. I just noted 脅かす (obiyakasu, to threaten) in this very blog, not two or three days ago, but the second character needlessly threw me. In it's verb form, it also means, to threaten: 威す (odosu).

足手まとい

asidematoi
hindrance, impediment

---

It literally means, bound hand and foot. So yes, that would be an impediment. The まとい part can also be written with a very complex character: 纏い (matoi, wrapped, bound, collected together).

儚い

hakanai
fleeting, ephemeral, fugitive, momentary, ineffectual

---

First off, I have to say, I love this character. It's 夢 (yume, dream, aspiration), with a side marker for person, which somehow implies that when other people get mixed up in your dreams, they become ephemeral. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. =)

享受

kyouzyu
to enjoy, to relish, to savor

---

Again, the second character is familiar, as I see it in words like 受信 (zyusin, to receive (a signal), to download), but the first is not. It turns out that 享 has a verb reading that is identical to that of 受. We have 享ける (ukeru) and 受ける (ukeru) both of which mean, to receive, take, get, etc.

遮断

syadan
mental block, blockage, to block, to intercept, to impede

---

I know the second character quite well, as it comes up in terms for interruption of Internet or other telecommunication connections, but I hadn't recognized the first character, which is why I thought to include this word here. 遮 is used, in verb form, as 遮る (saegiru, to intercept, obstruct).

破滅

hametu
ruin, ruination, destruction, devastation

---

I decided to write this down to remember because I love the word, ruination. I wanted to use it in translation, but space constrictions forced me to settle on 'ruin'. =(

頗る

sukoburu
extremely, very much

---

First off, I doubt that many people would write it as 頗る. It's probably more common to see it spelled out it hiragana: すこぶる. But I love learning new kanzi.
Secondly, the other odd thing about this is that it's an adverb that doesn't look like one. In fact, it looks like a verb, ending in ru as it does. You expect it, at first, to be conjugated, but no, it only appears in this form, which makes sense, once you know the meaning.

警戒

keikai
watchfulness, caution, alert

---

For some reason, I see this and I think, 'warning', which is the meaning for 警告 (keikoku). I need to clearly differentiate these two words in my head.

勢い

ikioi
power, force, energy, strength

---

I was trying to figure out how 勢い differed from 強さ (tuyosa, strength, power) or other words that can mean 'power' in Japanese (including パワー (pawaa, power), I suppose), when I checked out the character itself: 勢. It also carries the connotation of 'military strength'. That's unique to it.

強引

gouin
pushy, aggressive, overbearing

---

I guess these characters never really made sense together in my mind: 強, which is the character used for the adjective, 強い (tuyoi, strong, powerful), and 引 , which is the character used for the verb, 引く (hiku, to pull). But I guess I can see how a 'powerful pulling' could relate to being 'overbearing'...

脅かす

obiyakasu
to threaten

---

A simple enough verb. I just need to remember it. =)

突破

toppa
break through, penetrate, break past

---

I must have a mental block about this term, because I have looked it up numerous times over the course of my translation history. Now I am committed to learning it once and for all. It is derived of characters that are used for two somewhat vicious verbs:

突く (tuku, to pierce, stab, thrust)

and:

破れる (yabureru, to rend, rip, tear)

Combined, it is easy to see how we get the violent act of penetration. But it can also be used to describe how earnings shoot past expectations, as well. So there's not always a violent connotation.
Anyway, here's to hoping it's now committed to memory.

返り討ちに遭う

kaeriuti ni au
to challenge someone, only to have it end in certain defeat

---

This seems like a difficult concept to transliterate, briefly, into English. Briefly is the key notion for me, because lately I am working under tight restrictions in line lengths and cannot be verbose. I forget the full original Japanese sentence, but I could not have ended the English with:

you're going to challenge them only to have it end in your certain defeat.

That would have been too long. I think I maintained the sense of the original when I pared it down to:

you'll end in certain defeat.

...within the context of the sentence and the surrounding story, which was indicating that the second person was going to challenge something formidable.

良きに計らえ

yoki ni hakarae
do as you see fit, (I'll) leave it up to you

---

Based on the verb 計らう (hakarau, to manage, arrange, dispose of), with which I was not familiar in the first in the first place, I actually encountered this phrase not in this most common form, but in an interrogative form: よきにはからうっか？ (yoki ni hakarau kka?). So there was a slight challenge to go from what I found in the dictionary to an interrogative form. I say slight, but it was very slight, because I ended, I think, by using:

So, I'll leave it to you, then?

お人好し

ohitoyosi
softie, soft-hearted person, chump, easy mark

---

This was kinda harsh to discover the meaning for, because when you look at it, you think, okay, 人 (hito, person) and 好し (yosi, excellent, agreeable), put 'em together and you should have an excellent person. But no. Apparently the meaning is not exactly the reverse, for a soft-hearted person is not a bad person. He or she is just not hard. An interesting insight into Japanese thought. I may edit this after talking more about it with my husband.

にもほどがある

ni mo hodo ga aru
to have a limit, to go to far

---

(As you might notice, I'm writing this blog again after years away from it. I'm working on a big project, and find myself looking up the same terms again and again. Figured it was time to write them down, in the hopes of learning them more efficiently.)
This is confusing to me, because it literally means 'there is also an extent for', and when plunked into a sentence, it confused me at first. Being able to find it idiomatically in my go-to online dictionary (wwwjdic) was fortunate for me.
I've found this phrase in particular combination with my next entry, お人好し, (ohitoyosi), as in:

お人好しにもほどがあるぜ、おたく

ohitoyosi ni mo hodo ga aru ze, otaku

That's a bit much, even for a softie like you.