Wiktionary

手前

Japanese edit

Etymology 1 edit

Kanji in this term
手 前
て
Grade: 1 		まえ
Grade: 2
kun’yomi

Compound of Old Japanese elements 手 (te, “hand”) +‎ 前 (mae, “front”), originally meaning “that which is just in front of one's hand”.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

手(て)前(まえ) • (temae) ←てまへ (temafe)?

  1. position that is just in front or before; in the nearer position
    あの店(みせ)は交(こう)差(さ)点(てん)の手(て)前(まえ)にある。
    Ano mise wa kōsaten no temae ni aru.
    That store is just in front of the intersection.

Pronoun edit

手(て)前(まえ) • (temae) ←てまへ (temafe)?

  1. (dated, humble, men's speech) I, me (who stands before you)
  2. (rare, informal, sometimes derogatory) you
Antonyms edit

Etymology 2 edit

Kanji in this term
手 前
て
Grade: 1 		まえ > めえ
Grade: 2
kun’yomi

Corruption of temae. The vowel shift emphasizes the confrontational sense of the term.[2][3] This flattening of diphthongs to monophthongs is characteristic of Tokyo's Shitamachi dialect. Compare おめえ (omē, from お前 (omae)), ねえ (nē, from ない), やべえ (yabē, from やばい (yabai)).

Alternative forms edit

Pronunciation edit

Pronoun edit

手(て)前(めえ) • (temē) 

  1. (vulgar, derogatory, men's speech) you, you son of a bitch, you bastard
    手(て)前(めえ)、何(なに)しやがったんだ！
    Temē, nani shiyagatta n da!
    You bastard, what did you do!?
Usage notes edit

Usually spelled in hiragana as てめえ.

Synonyms edit

References edit

  1. ^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  • 2000, Jonathan Bunt, Gillian Hall, The Oxford Starter Japanese Dictionary, First Edition, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN
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