Neta - Tane

December 26, 2006 on 4:03 pm | In Language | | Email This Post

Some interesting language trivia.

The word ネタ (neta) can have a meaning of “material” for jokes, or stories. For example, you can say…

ラーメンズは使うネタがおもしろいからおもしろいんだ

Ramenz use interesting joke material so they’re really funny.

また明日も作文を書かなきゃ行けないけど、ネタ切れで何について書いてよいかわからないI have to write another essay tomorrow, but I have run out of topic ideas and can’t get started.

The interesting part is, the word ネタ、actually is the reverse phonetic pronunciation of the word 種（たね） which means “seed”. You can imagine that “seed” could be used metaphorically to mean “source”.

There ya go.

Apparently there are other words like this as well. Anyone know any?

- Harvey

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4 Comments »

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  1. Gravatar

    呼んだ？

    Comment by CAT-2 — December 26, 2006 #

  2. Gravatar

    Wow, that is really cool!

    Comment by Heather Meadows — December 27, 2006 #

  3. Gravatar

    neta, tane. cool. i noticed you started a meeting site. what a great idea! good luck. (hehe, joy told me your japanese is better than your english now? geez, you may be better than a native.)

    Comment by ayumi — December 27, 2006 #

  4. Gravatar

    あ、CATのコメントは今わかった。たね！たね！！どこだ！

    There are other words like this too but I can’t think of any right now!

    Ayumi! Joy is crazy, my English hasn’t become that bad yet! Heh.

    Comment by harvey — December 27, 2006 #

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