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I saw it used and don't understand it. Here's the usage:

お陰で村を囲む堀や、防護柵も完全に機能させられるほどの出来になっていた。

Any translation of 出来 (でき) I can think of sounds nonsensical. Could someone point me in the right direction?

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  • Did you look this up in a dictionary before posting? 出来 is a word...
    – Earthliŋ ♦
    Jul 11, 2015 at 11:58
  • Yeah, I did, on dictionary.goo. I was quite tired yesterday though and didn't see the definition, I guess. This was totally my bad. I'll delete this post. Oh, I can't delete it. Oh well.
    – ElSigh
    Jul 11, 2015 at 16:29
  • Well, it's not a big problem, but goo has 出来, too (see sense 2).
    – Earthliŋ ♦
    Jul 11, 2015 at 17:45

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The 出来 means [出来栄]{できば}え, 完成度, クオリティ, etc.

「～～するほどの出来/出来栄え/完成度だった・になっていた」 means 「～～するほど出来/出来栄えがよかった」「～～するほど完成度/質が高かった」.

I think it's like:

"(Something) was so well-made that it could~~"
"The quality (of something) was good enough to~~"

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These definitions seem relevant:

出来 - workmanship; craftsmanship; execution; finish; quality

However it may make more sense when you consider that 出来 is the stem form of 出来る, which can mean the following:

出来る - to be made; to be built; to be ready; to be completed

Basically, 出来になっていた means that the construction was becoming complete or completed.

ほど means "extent," but often it may be more accurately translated at "to the extent that."

Here is my updated translation:

お陰で村を囲む堀や、防護柵も完全に機能させられるほどの出来になっていた。
Thanks to that, the ditch and protective fence surrounding the village were also built to the extent of functioning perfectly.

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    「出来」を「完成度」という意味で捉えるとどうなりますか。
    – Chocolate ♦
    Jul 11, 2015 at 2:37
  • 出来 doesn't mean the level of completion, it means fully complete/built/ready/finished.
    – Darcinon
    Jul 11, 2015 at 7:33
  • @Darcinon: <出来 doesn't mean the level of completion> Then how do you explain such expressions as "出来がいい息子", "出来の悪い製品" and the like?
    – eltonjohn
    Jul 11, 2015 at 12:30
  • "出来の悪い製品" makes sense as "a poorly built product." Another translation of 出来 is "quality," which means about the same thing - "a low quality product." The product is finished, but not finished well. I would guess that "出来がいい息子" has a similar meaning of a well-raised, successful son. "Level of completion" doesn't make sense to me in English, but "level of perfection" does make sense because that basically means "quality." I get the sense that Japanese culture doesn't consider something complete until it is perfect, very interesting!
    – Darcinon
    Jul 11, 2015 at 18:27
  • @Darcinon: Your reasoning made me aware that the Japanese culture implicitly differentiates between "finished" and "completed." Murphy's law "All is well that ends" is talking about "finished" and Shakespeare's play "All's Well That Ends Well" is talking about "completed," I guess.
    – eltonjohn
    Jul 12, 2015 at 12:12

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