Japanese Body Part Idioms

[BWL]

I was just reading another thread about the significance of idioms in human languages and I was thinking about some of the extremely interesting idioms in Japanese involving body parts.

They are very commonly used but may seem bizarre even to native speakers of Chinese and Korean, their immediate regional neighbors. Unlike English expressions "He kicked the bucket", "he spilled the beans" etc. these idiomatic expressions are used even in formal, written language and have been an essential part of the Japanese linguistic identity for centuries if not millennia.

Some common ones:

頭が切れる (Atama ga kireru) - to be smart (One's head can cut)

頭が下がる (Atama ga sagaru) - to respect (One's head hangs downwards)

頭が古い (Atama ga furui) - to be old-fashioned (One's head is old)

頭に血が上る (Atama ni chi ga noboru) - to get excited (Blood goes up to one's head)

頭が固い (Atama ga katai) - to be stubborn (One's head is hard)

There are hundreds more of these fabulous expressions!

[linguaholic]

Most of them are new for me. Thank you so much for taking the time to share those with us! 

[BWL]

Apologies for bumping this thread, I just heard this one the other day while watching a Japanese anime, just couldn't resist sharing.

耳が遠い (mimi ga tooi) = to have bad hearing (ears are far)

もっと大きな声で話してくれませんか。おじいさんは耳が遠いんです。

Could you please speak louder please? Grandpa has bad hearing (literally, "Grandpa's ears are far").

 

[宇崎ちゃん]

"頭が切れる (Atama ga kireru) - to be smart (One's head can cut)"

That's strange, I'm sure my teacher always says 「頭がいい」 (atama ga ii) to mean "to be smart" (literally: one's head is good).

[linguaholic]

16 hours ago, BWL said:

Apologies for bumping this thread, I just heard this one the other day while watching a Japanese anime, just couldn't resist sharing.

耳が遠い (mimi ga tooi) = to have bad hearing (ears are far)

もっと大きな声で話してくれませんか。おじいさんは耳が遠いんです。

Could you please speak louder please? Grandpa has bad hearing (literally, "Grandpa's ears are far").

 

No need to apologize  Your posts are always appreciated