Japanese: KILL – Is it too scary!? The words with “kill” in daily life

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Have you ever heard the ordinary Japanese say "kill"?

The word of "kill", the Chinese character is "殺".
Although both Japanese and Chinese people know that "殺" means "kill", there are some differences in the recognitions of this Chinese character.
Note: The Simplified Chinese character of "殺" is "杀".

If a modest man said "kill myself", you would be very worried. In fact, the word of "suicide" （自殺 [じさつ] [jisatsu]） in Japanese is not "kill myself" as Chinese people recognize.

There are many usages of "kill" in Japanese language, let's take a look together!

The definition of “殺”

Let us take a look at English dictionary first.

kill verb

• to make somebody/something die
• kill something to destroy something or make it less good; to make something stop
• kill something (informal) to switch off a light or engine; to stop a computer program or process
• kill somebody | it kills somebody to do something (informal)
• kill somebody (especially North American English) to make somebody laugh a lot

Oxford Learner's Dictionaries

In English, we can see "kill" is not only life-related, and some more.
In Japanese, there are various extended usages.

In Japanese,

ころ・す【殺す】 [korosu]

1. to kill; to slay; to murder; to slaughter​
2. to suppress; to block; to hamper; to destroy (e.g. talent); to eliminate (e.g. an odour); to spoil (e.g. a flavour); to kill (e.g. one's speed)​
3. to suppress (a voice, feelings, etc.); to hold back; to stifle (a yawn, laugh, etc.); to hold (one's breath)​
4. to put out (a runner)​Baseball
5. to pawn; to put in hock

jisho.org

Usages of “KILL” in daily conversations

Japanese often use “KILL”

In daily conversations, even if someone said "kill myself", but it does not mean "suicide".

自分を殺す
[じぶん を ころす]
[jibun wo korosu]
(kill myself)

means

Keep my emotions from coming out

自分の感情を押し殺す
[じぶん の かんじょう を おし ころす]
[jibun no kanjou wo oshi korosu]

or

Keep my mind from coming out

自分の気持ちを押し殺す
[じぶん の きもち を おし ころす]
[jibun no kimochi wo oshi korosu]

If he's actually going to suicide, he will say

死にたい [しにたい] [shinitai]

死のう [しのう] [shinou]

死ぬつもり [しぬ つもり] [shinu tsumori]

These mean "want to die", and it is very dangerous mental state!

In addition, "kill voice" is also a common usage.

声を殺す
[こえを ころす]
[koe wo korosu]

means "keep his voice quiet (or very low), and keeping it quiet".

"Killed scene" is not "destroyed scene".

殺風景
[さっぷうけい]
[sappuukei]

The meaning of "killed scene" in Japanese is "there is nothing attractive in the scene".

殺風景な部屋
[～な へや]
[～na heya]

"There is nothing attractive in the room" is common usage.

殺到する [さっとう する] [sattou suru]

means "come flooding in", "rushing in", and so on.

This can be used in both good and bad situations, such as:

苦情の電話が殺到する
[くじょうの　でんわが　さっとう する]
[kujou no denwa ga sattou suru]
Complaint calls are coming one after another.

あの店に客が殺到する
[あの みせに きゃくが さっとう する]
[ano mise ni kyaku ga sattou suru]
The store is inundated with customers.

In addition, there are general figurations like these:

忙殺 [ぼうさつ] [bou satsu]

means "very busy", it is not "death caused by overwork", actually he is not killed.

黙殺 [もくさつ] [moku satsu]

means "silence" or "ignoring".

彼の提案は黙殺された
[かれの ていあんは もくさつ された]
[kare no teian wa mokusatsu sareta]
His suggestion was completely ignored.

The terms with “kill” in baseball

Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan.

Baseball = 野球 [やきゅう] [yakyuu]

For the act of making "out(s)" in baseball terminology, the Chinese character "kill" is often used.

Some examples are as follows:

併殺
[へいさつ]
[heisatu]

double play

三重殺
[さんじゅうさつ]
[sanjuu satsu]

triple play

封殺
[ふうさつ]
[fuusatsu]

force play

We all know that baseball is not such a life-threatening sport!

“kill” commonly used by professionals

Accountants often say

相殺
[そうさい]
[sousai]

This means "offset" (cancelling each other out; counterbalancing).

If it means "killing each other", the pronunciation is different. It is [そうさつ] [sousatsu], but this is a rare case.

Engineers often kill

機能を殺す
[きのうを ころす]
[kinou wo korosu]

functions

ポートを殺す
[ポートを ころす]
[po-to wo korusu]

ports, terminals, and interface

This means making the functions or the interface unavailable.

Architects also kill windows

はめ殺しの窓
[はめ ごろしの まど]
[hame goroshi no mado]

"はめ" means "insert", and the pronunciation of "ころし" is changed to "ごろし".
"killed window" means "fixed (non-operable) window".

We all think that the original meaning of "kill" was a terrifying word. However, "kill" is often used as figurations in daily Japanese.

Although Japanese use the expression of 'kill', all people know that life is particularly important, and the words are only used as figurations. Please do not worry!

Thank you for reading this article!