Tag Info

I didn't exactly say that ぴかぴか comes from ひかり (originally pronounced pikari), but rather that ひかり itself seems to be 擬態語. That is, pikari may come from pika which may have been used to mean 'shining' back in the old days just as it is today. I don't have time now to search for the etymology of the specific words you gave me here, but as far as I can tell, ...

It is not 100 percent clear, but I will try to list up the many theories that have been established: Japanese does not have as many verbs as other languages to express subtle nuances of an action. For example, in English, we can say daddle, waddle, trudge and toddle, whereas in Japanese, you would express these nuances with mimetic words like ...

Besides the phrases being idiomatic (fixed), there is a slight difference in the meaning of these words. お腹 (onaka) means stomach, although it can also mean belly 腹 (hara) means belly You can also tell this from the fact that the pronounciation for お腹 (onaka) is related to 中 (naka) 'inside', which implicates stomach. Therefore, even with the same ...

That is fine. Alternatives are: クスクス 'silently laughing while making fun of someone' ウフフ 'smiling somewhat silently and often happily' エヘヘ 'smiling because of being ashamed' デへへ 'smiling with a slight implication of 変態-ness' アハハ, ワハハ, ワッハッハ 'giggling' ガハハ 'giggling out loud or a fat person giggling' ゲラゲラ 'giggling continuously' A famous ...

It is not ビ and シッ but a single word ビシッ. It is a 擬態語 signifying firmness of an action. From びしっと in Daijirin: [2] 厳しいさま。ぴしゃりと。 びしっと断る (my translation: reject flatly) In your example, both ビシッ and the raised finger have the effect of showing that the character in the panel is stating her opinion firmly as if it were an objective fact.

ごうと音 is a sound, a short version of ごうごうと meaning "thundering". The full sentence then would be something like ごうと音がして、魔女の手の中で火炎が燃え盛る。 There was a thundering sound and fire blazed from the hands of the witch. The と indicates that ごう is used as adverb.

I'm not Japanese, but as far as I know 「むぎゅむぎゅ」depicts squeezing something softly probably more than once as Sawa pointed out. I think you can use it in relation to some texture that has elasticity. The context it is used in can be cute, but is not limited to it. For instance, you see 「むぎゅむぎゅ」used to describe how the dough of a bagel feels. However, it is ...

Friends and I quite often use "ふむ" (just once) in electronic communications in order to show acknowledgement, though with a very slight nuance of reluctance or thoughtful consideration. Here's an example from a native Japanese speaker, after hearing about the context of a quiproquo: ふむ。誤解されやすい書き方をしたので間違えて解釈されちゃったんだろう。 Though it's not "I know", it's ...

Usage 1: I think this usage has sort of Kansai dialect flavour, although it can still be used in Tokyo dialect. While どんどん and だんだん have the implication that it is straightforwardly going towards one direction on the scale, ほちほち implies that some kind of force against it or brake is in effect, or it just implies that the rate of change is slower. It can even ...

I don't know who told you that each only went with one, but I don't think that's true. I have most definitely heard お腹【おなか】used with both verbs. And Google seems to agree (100ks hits for either). 腹【はら】is less common in any case, and 腹空いた【はらすいた】 sounds a little unusual, but Google still gives over 60k results for it, so I doubt it could be considered ...

っと means for a short time. for example きらきら is sparkling all the time but きらっと means it just sparkled for a moment. And it's same for others too. What you are mistaken is that we write 擬態語 in Hiragana (平仮名 (I wasn't sure if I wrote the English part right so I wrote it in Japanese)) and that we write 擬音語 in Katakana (片仮名). And for for 擬音語　we don't usually ...

Someone pointed out to me that all of the "H" group sounds (is there a name for them?) are laughing sounds. I forgot what the nuances were, but I'll refer to this Pera Pera Penguin's 5-minute Japanese Class by Hitomi Hirayama. はははは - normal laugh ひひひひひ - conniving laugh ふふふふふ - creepy laugh; feminine laugh へへへへへ - shy laugh ほほほほほ - [elder] ...

I think Sexy Commando says either "ふむふむ、なるなる..." or"なるふむなるふむ" while reading a newspaper in one episode. Obviously, this is a humorous use. BTW, I have a great related oyaji gag: I put out my hand to see if it was raining. By chance, a bird flew overhead just then and dropped some poop, which fell into my hand. I looked at it and said　ふーーん?