Glossary entry

Japanese term or phrase:

しかめっ面

English translation:

(a) frown, grimace, scowl

Added to glossary by Roddy Stegemann
Feb 15, 2010 04:56
14 yrs ago
Japanese term

めっ面

Japanese to English Art/Literary Journalism Comparitive Culture
Is this an abbreviation, a misprint, a term that I cannot find in my available dictionaries, or a poor understanding of Japanese grammar on my part?

「...そこに見られる黙ってしかめっ面をしていて、ときどきぽつんぽつんとへんなことを言う土地神のしぐさのなかに...」
Change log

Feb 17, 2010 00:33: Roddy Stegemann changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/30853">Roddy Stegemann's</a> old entry - "しかめっ面"" to ""(a) frown, grimace, scowl""

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): humbird

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Discussion

humbird Feb 16, 2010:
"or a poor understanding of Japanese grammar on my part?" Yes you are so correct, and I am glad at least you are modest. This lack of understanding merits reclassification from "pro" to "nonpro".
cinefil Feb 15, 2010:
しかめっ‐つら【顰めっ面】
しかめた顔。渋面。「—をする」
広辞苑

Proposed translations

19 hrs
Japanese term (edited): しかめっ面
Selected

scowl

alternative
http://insidestoryflashcards.com/printable_flashcards/index....

しかめっつら 顰めっ面
しかめっ面をする frown [scowl] 《at, on》; knit one's brows; grimace 《at》; make grimaces [a wry face]
しかめっ面をして with a frown [grimace]; with knitted brows.
http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/顰めっ面
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3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I want to thank everyone for their input, but most of all to Yasatomo for turning me on to KOTOBANK. I even downloaded the Firefox plug-in and installed it into my browser -- very handy. In the end Shinji (cinefil) provided me with all of the information I required to solve the mystery on my own. As Yasutomo and Tina have indirectly suggested, it was my poorly conceived grammatical interpretation that led me astray. Truly, I looked for some sort of negation to go with しか, but could not find any. So, I blamed my confusion on Tsurum Shunsuke's sloppy writing style and turned to ProZ for help. Tsurumi has so shaken my Japanese grammatical foundation during the past few weeks that I am no longer sure about anything. Of course, a little shaking loosens the ground and brings down poorly constructed old buildings, so that new ones can be built. Moreover, when I am unable to understand him, he does have a lot of interesting things to say. As I can only award my points to one person and Shinji was first with his discussion entry, I must award my points to him."
+1
6 mins
Japanese term (edited): しかめっ面

grimace, sulky face

You're just cutting it off at the wrong point.

It means to contort one's face in an expression of distaste or displeasure.
Peer comment(s):

agree Yasutomo Kanazawa
0 min
どうも! ^_^
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7 mins

frown

「めっ面」ではなくて「しかめっ面」です。しかめっ面はfrown とかgrimaceなどと訳されます。
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Reference comments

6 mins
Reference:

FYR

Should read しかめっつら。Not a typo, abbreviation nor misprint.

http://kotobank.jp/word/顰めっ面
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