Japanese Word Puns
Discussions center on puns, homophones, portmanteaus, etymologies, and katakana loanwords in Japanese, especially coincidences with English and uses in tech naming by programmers.
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probably because it's a japanese word and the rest are english?
Could you explain this play on words for someone who doesn't know Japanese?
Did Japanese get a similar word by coincidence?
It's portmanteau word (watashi x ashiato) - the pun only makes sense in Japanese.
Apparently you don't know about katakana, its a form of the Japanese alphabet that is specifically used for foreign words translated to Japanese. The pronunciation of these words sounds similar to their foreign counterparts. think sararimam == salaryman, hanba-gu == hamburger, terebijon == television and so on.katakana - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana
it's just the Japanese name for it
In English, it's close to "ass kisser" ... and I'm wondering if the pun is intentional.My experience living in Japan tells me it's probably just a coincidence. They often seem to stumble into these!
Interesting etymology of phenomenon all japanese learners encouter really early.
Could it be a homophone of some other more name-worthy word? It seems to be a common occurrence in Japanese.
Yes it's one of those "funny" words in Japanese that is highly context sensitive, so you're probably right.