*Psst* WWWJDIC Re: 'kan' ?? Mystery word time.

From: Paul Blay (ranma_at_saotome.demon.co.uk)
Date: 12/02/04 

Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 16:15:49 -0000

"IIJIMA Hiromitsu" wrote ...
>> Then _why_ 漢 instead of 男 ? Doesn't it makes sense that there be
>> some particular nuance to 漢 that isn't covered by 男 ?
>>
>> Particularly as "接尾語的に用いる。" doesn't seem to be followed in
>> the 彼こそ漢 sentence fragment.
>
> '漢', pronounced おとこ, has a nuance of 'honourable man'.
> This is a kind of slang used in novels and comics.

Aha. I thought it might be something like that. That makes sense.

There's no entry for 漢 【おとこ】in EDICT, in case Jim is passing through.
 
> When used as suffix, such as 熱血漢 or rather 痴漢, then there is no such
> nuance.

I would have thought as much ;-)

Although in some weird contexts I've come across 痴漢さん o_O;
In the 'good old days' of black and white films with badly stereotyped
Japanese characters that would probably have been translated as
"Honourable Pervert".

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