Jump to content
OtakuBoards

The overuse of the word "Otaku"...


Mist
 Share

Recommended Posts

[color=royalblue]
Lol, it bugs me too, how it is so misused. I mean, in my personal bio, it says "--->idiot otaku" but it was just a joke. I mean, I know my fair share of anime's (alot more than CN watchers), but I don't come anywhere near an otaku. Now, Rick Hunter, I would consider a huge otaku.
[/color]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Transtic Nerve [/i]
[B]People don't understand the meaning of Otaku.... it means Nerd... whichever way you look at it, thats it's meaning... except for the "Your House" meaning, but thats not used alot.[/B][/QUOTE]

Well, if anyone's interested, here's a bit more in-depth look-

There are two words in Japanese that are pronounced 'otaku' -

?I?^?N - geek, nerd, enthusiast
?ä?î - your house

Now the first one is pretty simple, it's the one we're all familiar with.

However the second one is a bit more difficult. As TN said, it's not used a lot... but it really depends on the situation. I wouldn't say to TN, "Hey, I'm going to otaku", or "I'm going to your house". But if I were talking to President Bush or someone, I would most certainly say "I'm going to otaku" because it would be rude if I said "anata no ie", as I would to TN. It's a formality thing.

As a standalone kanji, ?î is pronounced 'taku' and basically just means house. But it can combine with what is called the 'honorific ?ä' which is just as it says. It makes the word more formal, and usually signifies 'your'.

It's like the phrase, u?ä?a¶?ú?¨?ß?Å?Æ?¤Iv. Saying just ?a¶?ú without the ?ä is rather rude since you're celebrating someone else's birthday. Even if it is a friend, it'd be kinda mean to just say ?a¶?ú. I can't think of any English equivalents unfortunately, but you might get the idea.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[url]http://www.jikannohizumi.net[/url]

There's a link on this page for people to get Japanese encoding. Make sure to set your browsers character coding to Japanese as well... for IE, just click the 'View' option on the toolbar, go down to Encoding, and select Japanese Auto-Select.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do believe all the new browsers already have the encoding in them. I'm not entirely sure about this sense I've never had to worry about it cause I've always had this encoding thing.

A quicker way to read it.... right click on the screen/browser and go to encoding. Then select the Japanese (Auto-Select) option.

And Jimmy, how come "fragment of memory" doesn't load for me?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Transtic Nerve [/i]
[B]And Jimmy, how come "fragment of memory" doesn't load for me? [/B][/QUOTE]

Because demented.org is ****ed up all the time lately for some reason. It's really reliable and fast at times, but lately it's just been crashing all the time.

But don't worry, the link only leads to the "coming soon" page anyway, heh.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Imsirion
he, I downloaded Japanese and Korean text things to look at videogame and such sites, guess Its good for here too!:D anyways,

I've never thought or heard of the word otaku being misused or overused, cause well... I'm really the only one around where I live:D
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by wrist cutter [/i]
[B][url]http://www.jikannohizumi.net[/url]

There's a link on this page for people to get Japanese encoding. Make sure to set your browsers character coding to Japanese as well... for IE, just click the 'View' option on the toolbar, go down to Encoding, and select Japanese Auto-Select.[/B][/QUOTE][color=indigo]Ooooh yeah, I remember checking out that site a few times.. so I already have Japanese text support, I just need to have it set. Meheh.. Ooo, new layout. :)[/color]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would prefer, I am Adam, CEO of theOtaku.com. That makes you seem a little more powerfull to other people, then throw around some big business terms and peoplewill think your as big as Bill Gates, well maybe not, and hes not a CEO but you get the picture.

On the Japanese encoding. If you have a CD with the IE on it it should have the endcoding on it to install. this is good if you dont want to have to downlaod it off the net. Just pop in your cd and look though it, not sure where but its there. ALthoug I am trying to find out how I did it and I can't.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Shift
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Zora [/i]
[B]Otaku just means geek. Almost everyone I know that says "Otaku" knows that it means geek. [/B][/QUOTE][size=1][color=crimson]No Otaku has many meanings. First off it means Nerd, Anime Nerd (in Nerdsy's case), Geek. So as you see it is all based on 'Nerd' but has many meanings. [/size][/color]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you people even read posts?

Otaku has two meanings, I explained it already.

And something a lot of people don't realize is that Japanese isn't French, Spanish, or whatever. English can almost directly translate into these languages because they're all similar. But Japanese has nothing at all to do with English, and thus it's really hard to pin down just one absolute meaning for each word. So when focusing on just the "geek" meaning of otaku, it can also mean "nerd", "obsessive person", etc., because all those words are fairly synonomous.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Hikaru Ichijyo
:) Hmm suprised this thread has been here all this time and I never actually saw it, well personally I don't like to be called an otaku, not because of what it means, but because I'm just happy being normal plain old Kevin! :devil: So please don't refer to me as an Otaku! Though I am hardcore thats true! ;)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then I think your brother needs to talk to wrist cutter... But back on subject, I think Herman is right, Zora. I'm pretty sure it's means "nerd", not "geek". But hey, if I'm wrong, I'll gladly stand corrected. :D
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Mist [/i]
[B]Then I think your brother needs to talk to wrist cutter... But back on subject, I think Herman is right, Zora. I'm pretty sure it's means "nerd", not "geek". But hey, if I'm wrong, I'll gladly stand corrected. :D [/B][/QUOTE]

I'm just gonna quote Jimmy for this:

[b][i]Do you people even read posts?

Otaku has two meanings, I explained it already.

And something a lot of people don't realize is that Japanese isn't French, Spanish, or whatever. English can almost directly translate into these languages because they're all similar. But Japanese has nothing at all to do with English, and thus it's really hard to pin down just one absolute meaning for each word. So when focusing on just the "geek" meaning of otaku, it can also mean "nerd", "obsessive person", etc., because all those words are fairly synonomous.[/b][/i]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Kodoku [/i]
[B]According to my handy little Japanese Directionary it means 'house' or a polite form of 'you'. Nothing about nerd. If I'm wrong don't blame me! Blame the fine people at Random House publishing. [/B][/QUOTE]

It does mean that as well. However, Japanese is not a language of certanty. Some words have several different meanings depending on how they are used and alot of "ancient" meanings as well. Otaku used for "you" and "house" are not used in great depth anymore, and when refering to anime, Otaku means the nerd/geek meaning.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Hikaru Ichijyo
I have to agree with TN the later meaning is the true meaning used right about now. I'm just suprised people still care about a debate that ended years ago.

I mean quite honestly does it really matter wether the word is overused or not? Otaku is overused just as much as people that constantly say baka and try to act Japanese.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Transtic Nerve [/i]
[B]It does mean that as well. However, Japanese is not a language of certanty. Some words have several different meanings depending on how they are used and alot of "ancient" meanings as well. Otaku used for "you" and "house" are not used in great depth anymore, and when refering to anime, Otaku means the nerd/geek meaning. [/B][/QUOTE]

Well, otaku is mainly used when calling up a friend or something. Let's say I'm calling up Tetsu, heh heh...

"moshi moshi"
"moshi moshi. ogawa no otaku desu ka?"
"sou."
"tetsuya ga imasu ka?"

...and so forth. A phonecall is about the most common time I can think of when otaku, meaning 'your house', is used.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest cloricus
Okay I just want to get this straight.
For the last week or so the topic of what does Otaku mean has been coming up at school.
Now I remember a thread saying Otaku means some thing like "freak" and has been applied to Anime freaks.
What I want to know was I right in thinking that Otaku the word just means freak and has no relation (apart from popular use) to Anime?

-Lord Epssy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[color=royalblue]Okay, once again...I'll set it out as clearly as I can. lol

The word otaku, in the context we are using it, basically means "hardcore" when it comes to anime/manga type stuff. Of course, in Japan...it can be considered offensive, depending on context.

And there are a variety of ways in which the word is used. In western culture, otaku is used quite often...and for the most part it is used to describe someone who is a hardcore anime/manga fan.

And so, that is why it was used on theOtaku.com and such. It's a very basic and clear way of describing what the sites are about and waht they relate to -- if you're familiar with anime and you see our site come up on Yahoo! or something...you will immediately have an idea as to what it is about.

Anyway, yeah...I'm surprised that this thread is still alive. I can understand why some people would want to know the meaning (and the context in which we use it) though.[/color]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...