ずぼん

See also: ズボン

Japanese

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeia. The zu portion indicates something rubbing or sliding (compare verb 擦る suru, “to rub or slide”), and the bon portion indicates something bumping to a stop or softly popping into or out of place.

This term appears in print in 1860,^[1] raising the possibility that the onomatopoeia sense arose from the borrowed noun ズボン (“trousers”) and the action of putting on a pair of trousers. The initial zu portion does not historically refer to rubbing or sliding, but instead more commonly carries negative connotations of abnormal or sloppy. Alternatively, this is a colloquial term, and it may have been a dialect term, and thus it might be older than its history in print.

Pronunciation

(Tokyo) ずぼん [zùbóń] (Heiban – [0])
IPA^(key): [d͡zɨbõ̞ɴ]

Adverb

ずぼん • (zubon)

(onomatopoeia) imitative of the sound of something rubbing or sliding and then bumping into place or coming out of place
- 1860, 七偏人 (Shichi Henjin, “Seven Eccentrics”), volume 4:^[2]
  丸(まる)くずぼんと穴(あな)の明(あ)いた古(ふ)犢(る)鼻(ふん)褌(どし)を…
  maruku zubon to ana no aita furu fundoshi o…
  [taking] the old loincloth with a round hole just plop hanging open...

Usage notes

Takes the particle と (to), as in the quoted example above.

Etymology 2

Alternative form of ズボン (zubon, “trousers”). See that entry for more detail.

For pronunciation and definitions of ずぼん – see the following entry.

【ズボン】

[noun] trousers (AUS, UK), pants (AUS, Canada, US), strides (AUS), generally refers specifically to men's pants.

(This term, ずぼん (zubon), is the hiragana spelling of the above term.)
For a list of all kanji read as ずぼん, see Category:Japanese kanji read as ずぼん.)

References

^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
^ 1857-1863, seven volumes published one a year, 妙竹林話七偏人 (Myō Takebayashi-banashi: Shichi Henjin, “Strange Tales from the Bamboo Forest: Seven Eccentrics”) (in Japanese), by 梅亭金鵞 (Baitei Kinga); re-published in 1983, Tōkyō: Kodansha, →ISBN

[KDJ-1] Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

[2] 1857-1863, seven volumes published one a year, 妙竹林話七偏人 (Myō Takebayashi-banashi: Shichi Henjin, “Strange Tales from the Bamboo Forest: Seven Eccentrics”) (in Japanese), by 梅亭金鵞 (Baitei Kinga); re-published in 1983, Tōkyō: Kodansha, →ISBN

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