Moving Temples

November 24, 2008 on 7:25 pm | In Culture, Language | | Email This Post

In Japanese, your temples (the ones on the side of your head, not the religious ones) are called こめかみ (komekami).

Before you jump off to another blog… wait… This is actually pretty interesting.

The kanji for こめかみ, which is hardly ever used anymore, is 米噛み. This is the kanji for “rice” 米 and the kanji used in the verb “chew” 噛む.

Next time you hear some word in Japanese that sounds kind of random, look it up in your Japanese-Japanese dictionary. There might be an interesting explanation waiting for you!

And trust me, after you’ve discovered an interesting explanation like this, you’ll never forget the word.

- Harvey

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3 Comments »

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  1. Gravatar

    Kanji can be annoying sometimes but it’s really useful in these instances, when trying to figure out etymology. Sometimes I bemoan the loss of kanji (but usually I just moan about kanji).

    Comment by Adam — November 24, 2008 #

  2. Gravatar

    I think that’s a much better name for them than “temples”!

    Comment by Thomas (babelhut.com) — November 24, 2008 #

  3. Gravatar

    well, actually the jap.-jap. dictionary of my electronic dictionary (XD-GW1750) gives the following explanation for these kanji:
    米噛み：年少の比丘尼。布施としてもらった米を噛み食うところからという。which means something like: ‘a young buddhist nun. refering to the chewing of rice which was received as alms.’
    according to the dictionary, the kanji for the temples is 顳顬 or 蟀谷.
    anyway, you’re right, i will not forget the word ;P

    Comment by matße — November 26, 2008 #

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