Could someone explain why 猥シャツ is defined as "obscene shirt (pun)"? I don't understand how this is a pun.
猥シャツ 【わいシャツ】 (n) (See Ｙシャツ) obscene shirt (pun)
Source: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1MUEワイシャツ
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The pun is that the kanji 「猥」, read 「わい」, means "obscene", whereas 「ワイシャツ」 means "dress shirt". The portmanteau 「猥シャツ」 therefore means "obscene shirt".
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Is
ワイ->Yreferring to the V formed by the neck and the | where the buttons are (you can tell I'm not in the shirt business)? – Karl Knechtel Aug 21 '11 at 8:47 -
@Karl: I'm pretty sure it's just because of the English pronunciation of the letter "Y". – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Aug 21 '11 at 9:16
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I've never heard a dress shirt called a "Y shirt" in English. Is that a UK thing? – Karl Knechtel Aug 21 '11 at 18:29
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2If 大辞林 is to be trusted, it actually comes from "white shirt", not "Y shirt". How it got from ホワイト to ワイ is not explained. Maybe by analogy with "T shirt"? – rdb Aug 21 '11 at 19:22
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1@rdb If you are following that, then it should be clear that in English, the counterpart to
ホワイトis rather pronounced likeワイ;ホis aspiration, andトis often not pronounced in English prnounciation. – user458 Aug 21 '11 at 23:55
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Look up the word 猥褻. It will all become clear.
猥褻 = わいせつ = obscenity
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I couldn't find 褻 in my usual reference, and trying it with Google gives primarily Chinese rather than Japanese results. – Karl Knechtel Aug 21 '11 at 8:45
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I think the word is normally written in hiragana. You can limit Google searches by language. If you limit your search to Japanese, this page should be among the first hits: ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/わいせつ Alternatively: dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/je2/81626/m0u/猥褻 – rdb Aug 21 '11 at 19:11
