大根役者

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Japanese

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Kanji in this term
だい
Grade: 1
こん
Grade: 3
やく
Grade: 3
しゃ
Grade: 3
on'yomi
Alternative spelling
大根役者 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

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Compound of 大根 (daikon, Chinese radish) +‎ 役者 (yakusha, actor).[1][2]

Derivation unknown. Possibly from the way that daikon as a food may be considered unsophisticated and crude; from the way that daikon are white (白いshiroi), alluding to the term 素人 (shirōto, amateur; hack); or from a well-known witticism that no matter how much daikon one eats, it never causes food poisoning / is worth notice (hinging upon the verb 当たる (​ataru), meaning either “to hit the mark” / “to be worth notice”, or “to cause food poisoning”).[2]

Pronunciation

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  • (Tokyo) いこんやしゃ [dàíkóń yáꜜkùshà] (Nakadaka – [5])[2][3]
  • IPA(key): [da̠iko̞ɰ̃ ja̠kɯ̟̊ɕa̠]

Noun

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(だい)(こん)(やく)(しゃ) (daikon yakusha

  1. (slang) a bad actor, a wooden actor, a ham actor

References

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  1. ^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN