Feb 4, 2012

"Boin(g)"

I hve learned that there is a popular blog named "BoingBoing" through VOA Special English program. I thought that the name is very interesting because "Boin(g)"(ボイン) means a glamorous buxom woman  in Japanese slang.

But recently we have rarely heard the word so it might have been becoming "shigo"(死語), in my directly translation, "a dead word". Now younger people  use "kyo-nyu"(巨乳) to express a glamorous buxom woman.

Japanese language, especially in slang, has always been changing.

2 comments:

ジョン said...

In English, "boing" is generally the sound effect used for something that is bouncing in comics. It's not a word that one spoken hears often. (An example.)

The word "glamorous" actually is used pretty differently in American English. In Japanese, it seems to refer to busty women. However, in America, "glamorous" means something like "elegant." To me, at least, it has connotations of ornateness and/or a high-class appearance, such as someone dressed fancily. It's usually not used for males.

例文 and 画像

Even though she is dressed simply, you could say that the woman in this photo looks glamorous, due to her classic hairstyle and makeup, I suppose.

This is hard to explain, I think! And there is probably some individual differences too.

As I mentioned above, women with large breasts would in America probably be described as "busty" or, sometimes, "breasty" or "chesty." "Buxom" is a bit old-fashioned but perhaps more formal word.

bikenglish said...

Jon-san,

Thank you for a very detailed explanation. It help me understand the word, "glamorous".

When VOA's announcer said "boing-boing", it sounded "ボインボイン" to me.