Chotto: The opposite of Awesome.

[unbibium]

You sometimes hear about how words that used to be strong, have eventually become weak. "Awesome" is usually cited, as it used to describe the kind of jaw-dropping awe, and now it describes a hot dog.

When English speakers learn Japanese, we learn that "chotto" is an adverb meaning "slightly" or "a little". And we learn that it's used for expressions like "come here for just a moment" or "it's a little hot outside" or "this shirt is a little too big." The student doesn't always pick up on how many of these expressions are talking about some problem, and trying to minimize it.

When I was in college, I checked out some "Nihongo Notes" books from the library, which were archives of a Japan Times column in which colloquial Japanese is discussed in English. One of these columns was about ending a sentence by trailing off at "chotto". Apparently, in the late 1970s, when this column was printed, the fashionable way to express distaste in something was to imply that there was some slight imperfection that was so slight that it's not worth finishing the sentence that names that imperfection. Nevertheless, the appropriate response is to recognize that, in fact, the imperfect thing is completely unacceptable, and respond accordingly.

And then later, I saw some anime, in which someone yelled "CHOTTO!" and the subtitle read "NO WAY!"

I wonder if English has any similar expressions, where you can no longer say something small without implying something big. I imagine our language is full of these, but we're just not looking for them.

Comments

[darquis.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally 0_o vanozza, who studies Japanese, came over today with this movie, which prompted me to ask about the ubiquitous "chotto". paivansade replied with all the above examples and mentioned it could mean "please provide a urine specimen" as well - her ex went for a pee test in .jp, the nurse handed him a cup and said "please, chotto..."