Happy 2008! It feels as if we’re still straddling the new year’s hump. The old year lingers in memory and in effects, while the new one has barely stretched out before us to reveal its form.

On the Effects of the Old Year …

The kanji 出 captures this feeling of having a foot in both worlds, because with the kun-yomi of de(ru), 出 has the following meanings:

(1) to appear; to come forth
(2) to leave, to go away

Together, these meanings produce an intolerable schizophrenic feeling in me. But at this moment in time—and perhaps only in this moment—they can coexist without contradiction; we’re leaving the old year as the new one appears.

With scads of readings and meanings, 出 pops up everywhere. Here, I want to look at it in a limited way, examining expressions in which things come out at us unexpectedly, as from a jack-in-the-box.
 

Things Fly Out of the Body!

We expect certain things to emerge from the body—urine, etc. But we generally don’t conceive of our limbs in that way. And yet that’s the gist of this expression, which strangely enough has financial connotations:

足が出る (ashi ga deru: to exceed the budget)
     leg + to come out

Perhaps this is like not having a leg to stand on after you’ve screwed up the budget. Or you tell your boss that you’ve blown a million, and he says, “Are you pulling my leg?” Or maybe it’s comparable to the “hollow leg” of insatiable drinkers, but in this case the hollow leg is for storing riches. No, a Japanese friend speculates that the metaphorical “legs” here emerge from “trousers” that are too short. The trousers represent a budget; the legs are the actual expenses.

The situation is not always dire when 足 and 出 join forces:

良い出足 (yoi deashi: good start (e.g., good acceleration of a car, sprinter, or racehorse); good turnout of people)
     good + turnout (last 2 chars.: to come out + legs)

Whereas English speakers do a head count at events, maybe the Japanese count legs!

Blood, Sweat, and Tears …

And what happens when the eyes fly out of their sockets?

目が飛び出る (me ga tobideru: eye-popping; staggering)
     eye + to fly + to come out

Tobideru (飛び出る: to fly + to come out) means “to pop out.” When the eyes pop out, one feels surprised. Or awed. Or in considerable pain.

Here’s another way to say the same thing:

目の玉が飛び出る (me no tama ga tobideru: eye-popping; staggering)     eye + ball + to pop out (last 2 chars.)

And if fire comes out of the eyes?

目から火が出る (me kara hi ga deru: to “see stars” (i.e. after being hit in the head))     eye + fire + to come out

Not to worry. If that happens, you’re only seeing stars! They seem to have emerged from the eyes. (I wish concussions in the English-speaking world were as wondrous to behold!)

顔から火が出る (kao kara hi ga deru: to be extremely embarrassed; to burn with shame)     face + fire + to come out

But when fire comes out of the face, it’s not as much fun as a concussion-induced fireworks display. Now you’re burning with shame. Your cheeks are on fire. I suppose it’s a precursor to burning in hell for whatever you did that provoked this much shame.

For More on Fire and Light …

An Outbreak of Individuality, Ego,
and Desperate Desire

As in English, there’s a Japanese expression to encourage conformity and discourage people from standing out:

出る杭は打たれる (deru kui wa utareru)
     to come out + stake + to be hammered

出る釘は打たれる (deru kugi wa utareru)
     to come out + nail + to be hammered

Both expressions mean “the nail that sticks out gets hammered in” or “the best policy is to keep your head down.” But the first expression actually refers to a stake or post (杭), whereas the second is about a nail (釘). These nouns (kui and kugi) sound quite similar. I prefer the second expression because of the eye-catching (eye-popping?!) repetition of the right-hand shape in 釘 and 打.

Character flaws sometimes take the form of colors in English idioms, as in “showing one’s true colors,” but in Japanese, dirt is somehow involved:

地が出る (ji ga deru: to reveal one’s true colors; to betray oneself)
     ground, earth + to come out

The expression 地が出る is certainly a far cry from the English reference to “coming down to earth” (after a heady experience). I thought 地が出る might be akin to having “dirt come out” on someone. But a native speaker tells me that 地が出る is about having something shiny and false (such as gold plating) fall away, revealing a much less glamorous layer (such as dirt) beneath that surface.

Other expressions about arrogance and modesty involve lots of directionality:

右に出る (migi ni deru: to be superior to)     right + to come out

Do Lefties Have Any Rights? …

下手に出る (shitate ni deru: to behave modestly)
     lower + hand + to come out

You may know 下手 as heta (unskillful). But in the expression above, it means “humble position” or “inferior” and has the yomi of shitate. The compound 下手 also means “underarm grip on opponent’s belt” in sumo, so perhaps that’s the origin of “humble position.”

Placing 手 (hand) near 出る has a very different result in this case:

咽から手が出る (nodo kara te ga deru: to want something desperately)     throat + hand + to come out

The kanji 咽 (nodo) means “throat,” which might bring to mind 喉が渇く (nodo ga kawaku: to be thirsty, throat + to run dry, to be thirsty). In fact, 咽 and 喉 interchangeably mean “throat,” though 咽 can also mean “choked.” No one is being choked with 咽から手が出る (even though “throat” and “hand” have combined in an expression of desperation!). Instead, this idiom is an abbreviated form of 咽から手が出るほど欲しい (nodo kara te ga deru hodo hoshii), which means “(I want that object so much that) it’s as if a hand could rise up out of my throat to grab it.” That’s kind of gross and definitely convoluted. Why not reach out and grab the object the old-fashioned way?

I know you desperately want the Verbal Logic Quiz, so here it is! Enjoy!

Verbal Logic Quiz …