So I was adding words to my deck and looked up a word from the Example Sentence corpus which meant "blind" (盲目). I noticed in the Edict it has a tag of (sens) which other words like 死ぬ have as well. Its kind of why you never use しち when counting when it involves people cause it sounds too close to しぬ (so my teachers have told me). I'm curious though, what is the cultural reason why 盲目 is sensitive?

Thanks.

I can't give you a firm answer, but I believe it's a pejorative these days, or perhaps a little less PC. (Think: Handicapped vs. Disabled; Retarded vs. Learning Disabled/Disability) I know you'll find it used in Soseki's 10 Nights of Dreams. The bottom line, however, is that you don't use it now.

I just talked to my girlfriend. She says there's no problem with it. For using with a person, you'd say "盲目の人"
They also say "恋は盲目" which appears in Rikaichan, and is strikingly similar to the English variation.

Yup, "blind" is not a polite word to use in Japan anymore. Now they use
目が見えない人 (person whose eyes don't see) or 目が不自由な人 (person who does not have free use of their eyes).

Yes it's stupid and verbose. I hate PC/言葉狩り.
See http://monoroch.net/gallery/kinshi/ for a list of other words banned from broadcast. Someone want to make it into an Anki deck?

Wait, you can't say 足を洗う?!

When it means 更正する, I guess not. I think it's fine if it literally means washing your feet.

Now, this is specifically a list of words that the news media avoids, not a general list of words that everyone finds offensive and no one uses. I think it makes sense for the news media to be more careful in their choice of words than in normal casual conversation.

yudantaiteki Wrote:Now, this is specifically a list of words that the news media avoids

Well that makes more sense. I heard many of these in comedy routines and the like.

Quote:Its kind of why you never use しち when counting when it involves people cause it sounds too close to しぬ (

What? Maybe I am not understanding clearly, but 七人 is しちにん.

＠Aijin: Actually I was just thinking about it and it may have been that しち何々 was a homograph for something involving death. Either way, you can probably disregard it. Most counters will work with なな just as easily I think, so I just use that since I can never remember where しち will work but なな won't (ex: no one says しちげつ I don't think).

Interesting list, J7. Thanks.

Some of those blacklisted words are quite funny or bizarre. Others are still used and I hadn't realized they might be controversial. (Words like 未亡人 had struck me as unfortunate, though.)

Some are further evidence that kanji meaning can being important - that words can be more than just sounds.

i read that it's kind of like "blind bastard" - when i used it with my japansese teacher, she told me gently not to use it as it's a discrimination word

vix86 Wrote:Its kind of why you never use しち when counting when it involves people cause it sounds too close to しぬ...

Are you sure is not し (=4 and =死), and that's one never uses "しにん"?