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The Worst Japanese Curse Word — 24 Comments

  1. Maybe it isn’t used much in real life, but I often see it used on sites like 2ch, written as 氏ね.

    • That’s the first time I’ve seen it, but I don’t know much about 2ch, and they do like to have a bit of their own language.

      • Yep, they like to censure sensitive words with different kanji. 基地外 (気違い) is another example. It was pretty funny when I read a book recently where I think author wrote 基地の外 instead of 基地外, because of the similarity to that word.

  2. What about 殺す? I think I remember seeing that used in the same way as 死ね. Like going “kill kill kill kill!!!” type of thing. So what’s the second worst insult in Japanese? Is it ばかやろう haha

    • 殺す’s intensity depends on context and tone a lot. But it definitely can be used for hate and anger like a typical curse word.

      Add a ぶっ for more intensity, ぶっ殺す!

      Not really sure about a second worst insult.

  3. This word actually impressed itself on my memory long before I started learning Japanese. As I remember there is a chapter of Detective Conan about a Western man who loves a Japanese girl and that girl also loves him back. However, they can’t really communicate due to language barriers.Before the man returns to his country he writes her a note which says that she “shine” brightly in his heart. Unfortunately, that girl takes “shine” as 死ね and thinks that she is hated by the man she loves most so she commits suicide. Now you see how serious 死ね is :)

    • I remember walking around in costco and seeing a giant picture of a lady smiling showing off her white teeth and it saying “SHINE” underneath her in giant letters and being caught off guard thinking it said 死ね for a moment.

  4. *gasp!* Squidward! >:O

    On a more serious note, it’s interesting to compare how a Japanese person would react to “die!” to how an American person would react to “die.” We’re told not to say the f-word when we’re young but then I feel American kids aren’t taught enough that telling people to die is a pretty big thing and should never be done.

    • I personally haven’t, but maybe in the future a writer on the site will cover this topic with some recommendations.

    • I’m actually pretty big into VNs, it’s one of the reasons I want to learn the language! I still haven’t really cracked into the language though, so I’ve only read them in English, but my favorite is by far Umineko no Naku Koro ni. Steins;Gate comes out in a few days as well. A couple of other good ones I’ve read have been G-Senjou no Maou, Saya no Uta, Kikokugai, and Swan Song. Additionally, the Zero Escape Series (Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors, 極限脱出 9時間9人9の扉; and Virtue’s Last Reward, 極限脱出ADV 善人シボウデス) are basically VNs with the addition of ‘escape the room’ puzzles, and their stories are FANTASTIC. The same writer (Kentaro Uchikoshi) wrote VNs such as Remember 11, Ever17, and Never7, I believe.

  5. I asked my Kagoshima friends if “eta” was really such a bad word. Judging by their immediate gasping reactions, it is.

  6. When I was in Japan I was even told when you knock on their door not to knock 4 times. Either 3 or 5 because of course, “shi” could mean 4 or death ….its a superstitious thing. Thats how it was in Okinawa but it could be different in Mainland

  7. Only tangentially related, but following one of Adam’s links in the article led me to this really cool Japanese FAQ, which looks like it was compiled from old Usenet posts:

    http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/afaq.html

    A lot of random stuff in there, not all of it useful, but I certainly got lost in it for a while. And learned some cool stuff!

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