クルミの日本語 exploring Japanese

父の日（ちちひ）

Today was Father's Day, in both the United States and Japan: 六月（ろくがつ）の第（だい）三の日曜日（にちようび） (third Sunday in June).

We noted several words for "father", appropriate for different situations, including:

• 父（ちち） humble; mentioning your own father to others
• お父（とう）さん honorific; addressing your own father or mentioning someone else's father
• 父親（ちちおや） neutral
• アボジ from Korean 아버지
• 親父（おやじ） your own father or boss; old man; seems impolite. Used in 親父 （おやじ）ギャグ, "dad joke."

The topic drifted to how to refer to someone as old or aged (politely or impolitely). 古（ふる）い, appropriate only for old things, is out. So what's in?

• 年寄（としよ）り, a noun for old people and the aged. 年 means "year" and 寄 means draw in, collect; so 年寄り is close to "reeling in the years." It also has a special meaning for retired sumo wrestlers.
• 引退（いんたい）, a suru verb for retiring from work. The kanji mean "pull" and "retreat/withdraw". Sumo also uses the term 引退相撲（いんたいずもう） for a retirement ceremony exhibition match.
• 定年（ていねん）, retirement age: literally "fix/decide" and "year". No bargaining here.
• 隠居（いんきょ） also means retirement, but literally "hidden living". 居 is part of a word used all the the time, but usually as kana only: いる (to exist)