くせげ

くせげ

Japanese

Alternative spellings
癖毛 くせ毛

Etymology

From 癖(くせ) (kuse, “peculiarity”) + 毛(け) (ke, “hair”).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) くせげ [kùségé] (Heiban – [0])[1]
• IPA^(key): [kɯ̟ᵝse̞ɡe̞]

Noun

くせげ • (kusege) ^{←くせげ (kusege)?}

1. hair that isn't straight; kinky or mildly curly hair

Usage notes

• This word was infamously mistranslated as the ghost word "vicious hair" in the Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary from 1918 to 2003.[2]

References

1. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
2. Michael Carr (1983), "A Lexical Ghost Story: *Vicious hair"