カテゴリ:life

aizuchi

hammer

Do you know the word, 'aizuchi'? It means 'appropriate words you give while the other person is speaking', such as 'Uh-huh', 'Really?' or 'I see'. Japanese people utter those 'aizuchi' very often, as that means you are listening to the speaker intently. The original meaning of the word 'aizuchi' is interesting. It meant the second-hammer of the sub-smith with the main swordsmith. 'Ai'(相) means 'each other', and 'zuchi'(鎚,could be read 'tsuchi' as well) means 'hammer'. Two smiths were needed to forge great swords in old Japan. However, we use the word 'aizuchi' only by the derived meaning today in our daily life.