There are a surprising number of Japanese words that are incredibly literal. The Japanese word “tebukuro” (手袋) is made up of the characters “Te” (Hand) and “Bukuro” (bag) = “hand bag”. It’s the Japanese word for “glove”! That makes sense, considering gloves technically are bags for your hands… Here are 15 other hilariously literal Japanese words that are used quite frequently!
1. Hana Uta (鼻歌)
Hana 鼻 = Nose
Uta 歌 = Song
LITERAL TRANSLATION: Nose Song
ACTUAL MEANING: Hum, Humming
Note: The verb “to hum” is hanauta o suru (鼻歌をする), which is literally “to do a nose song”.
2. Hana Mizu (鼻水)
Hana 鼻 = Nose
Mizu 水 = Water
LITERAL: Nose Water
ACTUAL: Snot
Note: Although mizu is water, hanamizu is used to described all snot-related things that come out of the nose, while English differentiates between snot, mucus, etc.
3. Hanakuso (鼻くそ)
Hana 鼻 = Nose
Kusoくそ = Shit
LITERAL: Nose shit
ACTUAL: Booger
Note: Another gross one, but it does make sense to describe boogers as being literal “nose shit”.
4. Kōshū (口臭)
Kō 口 = Mouth
Shū 臭 = Odor/Smell
LITERAL: Mouth Odor
ACTUAL: Bad Breath
Note: The kanji for mouth 口 is often pronounced as kuchi or guchi, but in this case, the pronunciation comes from the Chinese word for the same symbol.
5. Kuchiguse (口癖)
Kuchi 口 = Mouth
Guse 癖 = Habit
LITERAL: Mouth habit
ACTUAL: Habitual saying
Note: One of the most common phrases that you’ll hear Japanese people utter habitually is Doushiyo… (どうしよう。。) which is like saying “Ah, what should I do?!” out loud to yourself.
6. Hayaguchi (早口)
Hayai 早 = Fast
Guchi 口 = Mouth
LITERAL: Fast Mouth
ACTUAL: Speed-talker, fast talker
Note: If a friend talks very quickly, you can jokingly/affectionately call them out for being a “hayaguchi“! Some people are naturally fast talkers, but many people turn into speed-talkers when they are nervous.
7. Nekojita (猫舌）
Neko 猫 = Cat
Shita 舌 = Tongue
LITERAL: Cat tongue
ACTUAL: Someone sensitive to hot foods and drinks.
Note: Considering how cats carefully eat their food, compared to dogs, who quickly wolf down their food, this phrase makes a lot of sense! Someone who is a nekojita slowly takes bites of hot foods, or takes small sips of hot drinks, often blowing to cool it down.
8. Mejiri (目尻)
Me 目 = Eye
Shiri 尻 = Butt, Bottom
LITERAL: Eye Butt
ACTUAL: Outer corner of the eye
Note: Just like the outer corner of the eye is called the “eye butt” in Japanese, the inner corner of the eye is the “eye head”. Megashira, the word for the inner corner, uses the symbols for eye (目) and head (頭).
9. Mayuge (眉毛)
Mayu 眉 = Brow
Ke 毛 = Hair
LITERAL: Brow hair
ACTUAL: Eyebrow
Note: Unlike English, mayuge does not refer to the eye, but rather just the hair that’s located on the brow. While English is “eye brow”, Japanese is just “brow hair”. The Japanese word has no mention of the eye.
10. Kutsushita (靴下)
Kutsu 靴 = Shoes
Shita下 = Under
LITERAL: Under shoes
ACTUAL: Socks
Note: Although the Japanese word for “socks” is kutsushita (靴下), many Japanese people also understand the katakana version of the English word: sokkusu (ソックス).
11. Hiru ne (昼寝)
Hiru 昼 = Noon
Ne 寝 = Sleep
LITERAL: Noon sleep
ACTUAL: A nap
Note: True, the Japanese word for “nap” has the word “noon” in it, but hirune is used to describe a nap taken at any time of the day – whether it’s morning, noon, or night!
12. Futsukayoi (二日酔い)
Futsuka 二日 = 2 days
Yoi 酔い = Drunkenness
LITERAL: Two days drunk
ACTUAL: A hangover
Note: Hangovers are the illness-like symptoms your body experiences when trying to recover from excessive amounts of alcohol. Often, alcohol is still in your system the day after drinking. It makes sense that the Japanese word for “hangover” would literally mean “two days of drunkenness”!
13. Shimauma (縞馬)
Shima 縞 = Stripe
Uma 馬 = Horse
LIT.: Striped horse
ACTUAL: Zebra
Note: Shima (縞) is the Japanese word for stripe-pattern. So shima (stripe) uma (horse) is the word for “zebra”. Interestingly enough, the word for “tiger” is NOT shima (stripe) neko (cat)! Tiger in Japanese is just tora (虎).
14. Hanabi (花火)
Hana 花 = Flower
Hi/Bi 火 = Fire
LITERAL: Fire Flower
ACTUAL: Fireworks
Note: When you think about it, fireworks do kind of resemble giant flowers glowing in the sky.
15. Chikatetsu (地下鉄)
Chika 地下 = Underground
Tetsu 鉄 = Iron
LITERAL: Underground Iron
ACTUAL: Subway
Note: The Japanese word for “subway” is not “underground train”, but rather, “underground iron”. The iron refers to the iron rails that run underground.
QUIZ LIVE: 15 Hilariously Literal Japanese Words!
For this week’s Facebook Live, we talked about literal Japanese words and quizzed our viewers in the comments to see if they could guess the words in English! Watch our weekly episode below:
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