常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

misanthropic

いまやキティちゃんに並ぶほどの人気キャラクターです。

One of Japan’s Most Popular Cartoons is an Egg Suffering From ‘Crippling Depression’

Introduced in 2013, Gudetama, the “misanthropic egg” suffering from “crippling depression,” has become another massive hit for the studio, according to PRI. His name is a play on “gude gude”, a term used for someone who has no energy or strength, and “tama” from tamago, or egg.

In his bio, Gudetama is described as “hard to motivate and has a negative, defeatist attitude.” On his official Twitter account, he says that tweeting is troublesome but he only does it because “great people” told him to. Despite his negativity, the cracked egg yolk who spews cold one-liners that reflect the dark realities of life is becoming more and more popular in Japan.

Japanese pop culture expert and co-founder of AltJapan, Matt Alt, said that Japan has had a long history of “personifying and anthropomorphizing inanimate objects.” While Western mascots and cartoons have traditionally been geared toward cheering people up, Japanese characters have been known to deviate from such constructs, not shying away from “uncomfortable” emotions, such as Gudetama’s dark and sad thoughts.

The depressed egg’s popularity in Japan may also be seen as reflective of its younger generation’s diminishing self-esteem and growing unhappiness. Described as the “withdrawn” generation, today’s Japanese youth have been observed to show a general lack of interest and unwillingness to take risks.

(以下省略)

http://nextshark.com/one-japans-popular-cartoons-egg-suffering-crippling-depression/

今回取り上げる単語は、misanthropic /mìsnθrάpɪk/です。

Oxford Dictionary of English (Second Edition Reserved, Oxford University Press)によると、 misanthropeで “a person who dislike humankind and avoids human society”とのことでした。Misanthropicはこの形容詞にあたります。ギリシャ語のmisanthroposが語源で、miseinが “to hate”、 anthroposが “man”という意味だそうです。

ジーニアス英和辞典』(第五版,大修館)で調べたところ、「人間嫌いな,厭世的な」と載っておりました。

ちなみにanthropoが頭につく単語は、「人間の,人類に関する」という意味合いを持つとのことです。

文中では「ぐでたま」を、the “misanthropic egg” suffering from “crippling depression”と説明しております。Wikipediaの情報によると、「ぐでぐでとしてやる気のない卵」という説明がされておりました。英語での説明は難しいのか、日本語よりも強い印象を受けます。(Gomez)