6

Does anyone know of any o-words or go-words which are absolutely neutral (have no nuances of being polite / courteous / respectful / womanly / cute etc etc)?

The only ones I'm aware of currently is おちゃ and ごはん

Update

Does anyone know of any o-words or go-words that when the お or ご is omitted, becomes another word or not a word altogether?

The only ones I'm aware of currently is ごはん

Improve this question
2
  • 2
    I wonder if おまえ counts.
    – phirru
    Jul 29, 2011 at 10:09
  • 2
    I've heard that Omae used to be polite way back when so that o would be polite
    – Mark Hosang
    Jul 29, 2011 at 13:01

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
6

Here is a list of neutral o- and go- words:

  • お手玉 'small bag for juggling'
  • おみくじ 'written oracle'
  • お冠 'being angry' [Not crown]
  • お目玉 'being angry' [Not eye ball]
  • お新香 'pickle'
  • おにぎり 'rice ball' [Not sushi]
  • おむすび
  • おこぼれ 'something positive gained (unexpectedly) from someone else' [Not falling off]
  • お裾分け 'a portion given away'
  • お下がり 'used thing (clothes, etc.) often given from a senior to a junior sibling' [Not going down]
  • お流れ 'cancel' [Not current]
  • おあずけ
  • お手上げ
  • お手
  • おかわり
  • お手付き
  • お年玉
  • お多福
Improve this answer
6
  • heys btw just to clarify, do you mean that for お手玉, おみくじ, お新香, お裾分け we can remove the を and the meaning would still be the same but for the rest we couldn't?
    – Pacerier
    Jul 30, 2011 at 14:18
  • @Pacerier No. For all of them, if you remove お, it would either not be a word used in present Japanese, or a word with a different meaning. For the ones that I put explanation in brackets, there is a word without お with a different meaning.
    – user458
    Jul 30, 2011 at 21:59
  • I have been told a few times that お金 is an example of a 'neutral' word with お on the front, but since it works fine as 金 by itself, I guess that it doesn't apply.
    – heuristicus
    Jul 31, 2011 at 14:31
  • These are all historical changes, and some words are under transition now. But I think for 'お金', 'お' still has politeness.
    – user458
    Jul 31, 2011 at 14:36
  • @sawa Btw I was wondering when we use "お休み" to mean that someone has taken a day off school/work, is the "お" in "お休み" considered neutral, or does it carry respect ?
    – Pacerier
    Mar 30, 2012 at 17:35
4

I do not know what you mean by “absolutely neutral (have no nuances of being polite / courteous / respectful / womanly / cute etc etc).”

Saying お茶{ちゃ} is definitely more polite to the listener than saying 茶{ちゃ}. The same applies to お冷{ひや} in Dave M G’s answer: it is a polite form of a rarer word 冷 (ひや; often written as 冷や).

ご in ご飯{はん}'cannot be simply removed (because 飯 read as はん is not a word in itself), but ご飯 is at least more polite than 飯{めし}. I do not think that there is any reason to believe that ご in ご飯 means anything other than politeness.

phirru mentioned おまえ in a comment on the question. I do not know the etymology of お前{まえ}, but I guess that お in お前 originally comes from the same お meaning politeness.

Improve this answer
4
  • 2
    This is actually a good question. If you think about the origin, these お and 御 used to be polite, but over the time, the version without them disappeared, and these prefixes on them lost their polite meaning. This is a usual thing in language change. The fact that 飯 (han) and 前 (mae) is not said in the relevant sense is the criterion that 御 in 御飯 and お in お前 do not express polite anymore. With お茶, I agree that お still expresses politeness. Do you really say 冷 'hiya' in the relevant sense?
    – user458
    Jul 29, 2011 at 13:09
  • 1
    @sawa: I wrote my opinion in the answer. I do not agree with your opinion that the prefixes lost their polite meaning in the case where the versions without the prefixes disappeared.
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Jul 29, 2011 at 13:17
  • thanks for pointing out the vagueness of the question. i've edited it
    – Pacerier
    Jul 29, 2011 at 13:59
  • 1
    For anybody reading these comments and interested in the process mentioned by sawa, you can get an introduction from reading the Wikipedia article on lexicalization.
    – hippietrail
    Mar 17, 2014 at 0:37
2

お冷{ひや} for a "cold drink of water", at a restaurant, is one.

As an updated answer to your updated question, お冷 doesn't become a different word or a non-word if the お is omitted. I don't think that circumstance exists.

However, having wondered myself if 冷, by itself, would be understood in a restaurant context, I've tried it and can say from experience that waitstaff will look at you quizzically if you drop the お.

お冷, like most お and ご words, has become a conventional set phrase. Changing it up is just weird.

Improve this answer
2
  • heys btw will ひや itself work/not work ?
    – Pacerier
    Jul 29, 2011 at 13:54
  • Interesting. I hadn't heard of お冷, and according to this page at least, お冷 is more of a word that the waiter uses? Or is it different to お水 somehow?
    – rjh
    Sep 7, 2014 at 17:35

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .