言い詰める (iitsumeru: to argue (someone) into a corner)
to say + to cram in
Many moons ago, we looked at compounds in which one kanji contains another (much like a whale that has swallowed a fish). The compound 言い詰める fits the bill. If you remove its hiragana, you can see the pattern more clearly: 言詰.
Several other words with 言 also qualify as whale-fish compounds. We saw some as part of a quiz in that earlier whale-fish blog. Here’s one more:
言い誤る (iiayamaru: to misstate, make a slip)
to say + to errI thought 誤る might be the kanji for ayamaru, “to apologize,” but that word is written as 謝る. Back when the Japanese had only a spoken language, not a writing system, those two forms of ayamaru may well have originated from the same place. Nowadays, the similarity can lead to fun (or confusing!) sentences:
誤りましたから、謝りました。
Ayamarimashita kara, ayamarimashita.
I made a mistake, so I apologized.
