3 ms·
Now that you mentioned it, the first association that came to my mind is with the character 八 (eight) which is part of 八つ当たり (yatsuatari), which in turn means v
by chousuke 10y ago
Now that you mentioned it, the first association that came to my mind is with the character 八 (eight) which is part of 八つ当たり (yatsuatari), which in turn means venting anger or frustration on someone who does not deserve it. Heh.
- ue_ 10y agoI'm learning Japanese and this is quite an interesting thing to hear. I am surprised by the number of things that do not quite have a simple analogue in English. It's a nice and compact phrase, though of course the danger with many of these is that they may be uncommon so risky to use, especially as a learner.
- chousuke 10y agoI'm actually not a native speaker either (I'm Finnish). I think 八つ当たり might derive from the same idea as 八方 which means "every direction" even though it's literally "eight directions". I'm guessing the idea is that you're hitting things all over the place, even if it's not a suitable target. EDIT: oh, I forgot to add that 八つ当たり is very common, so you definitely should look out for it to get an idea of how and when to use it.