“Tsundoku,” the Eastern Phrase for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Cabinets, Will have to Input the English Language

There are some phrases available in the market which might be bril­liant­ly evoca­tive and on the similar time impos­si­ble to ful­ly trans­past due. Yid­dish has the phrase shli­ma­zl, which basi­cal­ly method a in step with­puppy­u­al­ly unfortunate in step with­son. Ger­guy has the phrase Backpfeifen­gesicht, which tough­ly method a face this is unhealthy­ly wanting a fist. After which there’s the Japan­ese phrase tsun­doku, which in step with­fect­ly describes the state of my aside­ment. It method purchase­ing books and let­ting them pile up unread.

The phrase dates again to the very start­ning of mod­ern Japan, the Mei­ji generation (1868–1912) and has its ori­gins in a pun. Tsun­doku, which lit­er­al­ly method learn­ing pile, is writ­ten in Japan­ese as 積ん読. Tsunde oku method to let some­factor pile up and is writ­ten 積んでおく. Some wag across the flip of the cen­tu­ry swapped out that oku (おく) in tsunde oku for doku (読) – imply­ing to learn. Then since tsunde doku is tricky to mention, the phrase were given mushed togeth­er to shape tsun­doku.

As with oth­er Japan­ese phrases like karaoke, tsuna­mi, and otaku, I believe it’s top time that tsun­doku input the Eng­lish lan­guage. Now if most effective we will be able to fig­ure out a phrase to explain unread ebooks that lan­guish to your Relatives­dle. E‑tsundoku? Tsunkin­dle? Contem­plate the mat­ter for some time.

The illus­tra­tion above was once made when a Purple­di­tor requested his daugh­ter to illus­trate the phrase “Tsun­doku,” and he or she didn’t dis­ap­level.

Notice: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this publish gave the impression on our website in July 2014.

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