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)^?}

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

Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
Michael Carr (1983), "A Lexical Ghost Story: *Vicious hair"

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