Hello! I want to ask something about a word I came across in level 5 chapter 49. のぞき穴 -… - Feed Post by Kooko_smile
Hello! I want to ask something about a word I came across in level 5 chapter 49. のぞき穴 - peephole
I talked about this word on a mobile Japanese learning community, but someone there who's a more advanced learner than me told me that they had never seen that word. Instead they gave 節穴 or 覗き窓 as alternatives for the word "peep-hole". Jisho also doesn't contain のぞき穴 so now I'm confused.
Is it a mistake? Is it just uncommon? (and if it is, shouldn't it be replaced by a more common synonym?) Or was the person I asked wrong?
Thanks in advance for answering ^_^
I talked about this word on a mobile Japanese learning community, but someone there who's a more advanced learner than me told me that they had never seen that word. Instead they gave 節穴 or 覗き窓 as alternatives for the word "peep-hole". Jisho also doesn't contain のぞき穴 so now I'm confused.
Is it a mistake? Is it just uncommon? (and if it is, shouldn't it be replaced by a more common synonym?) Or was the person I asked wrong?
Thanks in advance for answering ^_^
posted by Kooko_smile
Comments 4
It's an actual word I've seen before. If you're ever in doubt, type the Japanese word into Google and see what images show up and also check the first couple or articles to see if the headlines contain the word you typed in.
I've thought that word was strange to see on this site, but not for the same reason. I don't know why (anime probably), but I immediately associated it with lewd voyeuristic peep shows...
ANYWAY...
The people you asked probably just looked it up on Jisho.org (or another resource which uses the same dictionary) themselves and said that.
覗く (のぞく) is a verb "peek, peep, ..."
覗き (のぞき) "peep" + 穴 (あな) "hole"
覗き穴 (のぞきあな) "peephole"
節穴 seems like more of a natural thing; a "knothole"—a hole in a wooden fence that you can peek through.
覗き窓 seems like it can only refer to a glass hole to peek through (like a peephole on a house front door).
覗き穴 is a hole designed for peeking through (an observation hole, a spy hole,...), which might be a 覗き窓 but could also be just an empty hole drilled through a wall. It could be a natural thing like a 節穴 in a fence, but specifically more about how that hole is usable for looking through than just a random hole.
I'm just a learner though, so just my opinions. Could be wrong.
Ah I see, thank you very much for explaining!
Also thank you very much for the google tip!- Yes
