Timeline for Help for this expression: 猿は人間に毛が[三筋]{みすじ}足らぬ
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 17, 2016 at 5:15 | comment | added | Yoichi Oishi | No, no, no. 毛 is hair, simply hair, nothing to do with 見分け、なさけ、やりとげ、ふざけ and たわけ。 | |
| Apr 17, 2016 at 3:10 | comment | added | broccoli forest | I didn't know this saying, but if the explanation is right, then the 毛 must be a pun on みわ け, なさ け, やりと げ. | |
| Jul 12, 2011 at 20:14 | comment | added | SuperElectric | I would also say that やりとげ here should be translated as "to complete a task", as in, the ability to see a (complex) task to completion. So the three qualities would be reason, compassion, and tenacity. | |
| Jul 3, 2011 at 10:07 | comment | added | ogerard | @Dave: I take hair to be an image for something that does not weight a lot physically (the three psychological capacities quoted) or does not change the looks of your head, or distinguish you at first sight. | |
| Jul 3, 2011 at 10:03 | comment | added | ogerard | @Tsuyoshi : glad to see that even natives are confused by this phrase :-) | |
| Jul 3, 2011 at 2:03 | comment | added | Dave | So... monkeys are less hairy than people? Whoever came up with this must have come from a very hairy ethnicity... ;-) | |
| Jul 2, 2011 at 15:56 | comment | added | Tsuyoshi Ito | What “three hairs” means is unclear, and “God removed three hairs from monkeys” and “three け are 見分け・情け・やりとげ” are just some of the many explanations. | |
| Jul 2, 2011 at 13:42 | vote | accept | ogerard | ||
| Jul 2, 2011 at 13:02 | history | edited | repecmps | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 566 characters in body
|
| Jul 2, 2011 at 11:09 | history | answered | repecmps | CC BY-SA 3.0 |