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13
The PR does indeed stand for public relations. In English it is almost exclusively a business term used to represent a companies goals to persuade the public, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its leadership, products, etc.
In Japanese it has the same meaning, only it can be applied to areas other than ...
9
Short answer: Both readings have the same meaning. Whether you consider かいしゅん as a valid reading of 買春 or not depends on what you count as “valid.”
Some Sino-Japanese words have not only an on reading which is shown in dictionaries as the primary reading but also an alternative reading which avoids ambiguity with some other words. 買春 is such a word. ...
9
The ただいま that you say when you arrive home is a contraction of ただ今帰りました. (ただ=たったjust / 今=now / 帰りました=(I) came back/came home /returned)
I think one other situation you're talking about might be where you say 'ただいま', 'Certainly, sir'/'Yes sir, I'll do that right away'/'Yes, I'll be right with you' etc., when someone tells you to do something or calls you, ...
6
「金」 in 「引き金」 does not represent money but metal. A metal is translated to 「金属」 and metal fittings are translated to 「金具」. 「引き金」 is the part of a gun made of metal for triggering a fire. In English, also trigger means the part of a gun as a noun and to cause something as a verb.
References:
かな‐ぐ【金具】
器物・器具に取り付ける金属製の小さな部品や細工物。鐶(かん)・錠・引き手の類。
source: ...
6
平行 can mean the same thing as 並行 in the second sense (物事が同時に行われる), so it does not encompass 並行 completely. For example, 電車と並行して走る should not use 平行 (although don't be surprised if you see the two mixed up). However, just look at the characters, the 並 of 並行 can be seen in words like 並ぶ while the 平 of 平行 can be seen in words like 平面. So, in general, 平行 is ...
6
I am sure someone could give a more comprehensive answer but it is usually the same as the difference between nation/state and country in English eg
国々 ｜countries
国家 ｜nation
国家的 ｜national
警察国家｜a police state
福祉国家｜a welfare state
国家の政策｜national policy
国 also has a few "domestic" uses, which I imagine go back to the time when ...
6
Is it not the difference between fluid and liquid? The latter can be very viscous or "fluid"/free flowing?
Defn of fluid: a substance that has no fixed shape and yields easily to external pressure; a gas or (esp.) a liquid
It is a bit clearer if you look at the origins of the words.
Fluid (as an adjective): from French fluide or Latin fluidus, from ...
5
英雄 is most normally used for heros whose status as such is established. ヒーロー implies an American hero. For example, Beethoven's third symphony is called 英雄 in Japanese, but no one would call it ヒーロー. 勇者 means someone who is brave, and is not the same as hero. 傑士 is not normally used.
Japanese hero shows are called 戦隊もの, as it comes from the early hero shows ...
5
こんにちは is "Hello!" or "Good day!", a greeting for meeting someone in any sort of circumstance.
もしもし is how you answer a phone. Usually both parties say もしもし in turn, before the caller identifies himself ("Hi, it's John"). Outside phone conversations, it is also used to get someone's attention, but I feel it is quite direct, more like "Hey!". (To get ...
4
It's just one word with more than one definition. See for yourself (or here). Your first example falls under the first definition (趣味に夢中になる) while your second example falls under the second definition (意匠をこらす). Kanji usage seems irrelevant here, it's the same word and you can use the kanji or not with no change in meaning. Context should give you an idea for ...
4
"OB" and "OG" mean "Old boy" and "Old girl" respectively. "Old boy/girl" means an alumnus of something, or a previous member -- usually in reference to a school or club.
So for this example, it says "By meeting with an OB/OG, they arrange an appointment...". Although I'm not sure if the OB/OG here is one from their school (who has already gone through ...
4
Although 本日 will usually be too formal for most situations, there are many cases where you would use it over 今日 (with slightly different nuances).
Typically when referring to something tied to the day's date:
本日の魚 (in a restaurant)
本日の会議 (in a professional context)
etc.
4
I don't think that anyone alive still refers to themselves as /warawa/, which is the first-person pronoun* denoted by 妾. You might find it (or some cognate) in use by the very old or those speaking non-standard dialects (or other Japonic languages), but I think you can safely call it extinct in "Standard Japanese".
In a modern context I would be surprised ...
3
From a politically correct point of view, the first two are discriminative and should be avoided. The third one is okay. That is, キャリアウーマン has an implication that women are supposed to stay at home taking care of the housework, and it refers to women who, regardless of that expectation, keep a professional career in life. OL refers to women who do deskwork ...
3
As is usual with homophonous kanjis, there is a general one, which, in this case, is 付ける. That means, in general, the other kanjis can be replaced with this one, but not the other way around. 着ける is used when the attachment is along a surface, especially in wearing clothes (that is, the clothes touch the skin along surfaces). 附ける means to append, and I ...
3
It's a variation of ギギギ, which originates from the manga はだしのゲン (barefoot Gen).
It's onomatopoeia which refers to teeth grinding in anger, frustration or regret. It can also be used as a sort of "groan" symbolizing unbearable agony.
See also http://www.paradisearmy.com/doujin/pasok_gigigi.htm for more info.
3
I have two phrases with this word:
ノリが悪い人| someone who never joins in
この曲はノリがいい| this song has a good beat
They come from 総まとめ 語彙 N2.
As for origin, I think it might come from expressions close to: 相談に乗る or リズムに乗って踊る (dance to the music)* which have been adopted in similar fashion to arrive at ウケがいい：
若者に受ける映画｜that movie that is very popular ...
3
コミュニケーションがとれる = to be able to communicate.
コミュニケーションをとる = to communicate.
In my experience, it is used a lot to speak about communication skills. So it's more than just being able to be heard and to hear.
You could say
そのチームはコミュニケーションがとれている。
about a team where all members speak a lot to each others.
3
I think that the sentence means “It disables (masks) interrupts temporarily,” although I am not sure if I understand the author’s intent of the parenthesized part “(マスク)” in the original sentence correctly.
不可 here means “disabled.” I would like to add that this usage is not common. The usual word for “disabled” is 無効, and the sentence is more usually ...
2
"I can understand that '割り込み masks something'".
The word 割り込み means a CPU interrupt. So it appears to say "Temporarily disable (via bit masking) interrupts".
The 不可 means "improper, inadvisable", as you said. But the とする means "to make such". So altogether 不可とする means disable.
2
我が身 in this sentence makes it feel like you are "looking at yourself from the outside" more than if you would use 私自身. I believe you could substitute わが身 with 自分自身 or 私自身, however I think 自分自身 would be a better fit because it feels more 客観的.
Also, 我が身 doesn't necessarily mean わたしの身, it actually can refer to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person. Although the 2nd ...
2
I'm a Japanese native speaker.
It's my impression that in the aforementioned sentence 'hige' is very ambiguous, floating somewhere between beard and mustache. To be honest I don't give much thought to the difference in reading/hearing such a sentence.
I don't fully agree with the idea that 'hige' is more likely to indicate mustache, although Sawa's ...
1
I recognise the expression and traced the question in the book (総まとめ語彙n１？）. I also see I had flagged the question when I studied it. This is how I think you were supposed to approach this:
The question asks you choose between こった and こりた. Both 懲りる and 凝る were part of that chapter and you are being asked to choose between the two.
The other meaning of 凝る ...
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