(Really) Special Japanese Tattoo

[wild]

Dear Forum

My wish might sound crazy. However the wish is quite stable inside me over time, and now it's time to take action: I will tattoo myself with some japanese letters saying the word kutabare.
As I googled around, there seem not to be many other guys like me with the same wish. That's already great.
Not so great is my problem that I do not know how this will look in Japanese. Nor do I know which font I need to use. Does anyone have any pictures? Any font advice? Or did anyone already do it and can post me a picture ?

Thanks a lot for helping me achieving my ideas

 

[nahadef]

Check here: Want a Kanji tattoo? Read before you ask!
And don't take it personally if the 'help' you get includes a pile of lectures and disdain. That is the gut instinct of the membership here, it seems. It's not you, it's them.

 

[Mike Cash]

Check here: Want a Kanji tattoo? Read before you ask!
And don't take it personally if the 'help' you get includes a pile of lectures and disdain. That is the gut instinct of the membership here, it seems. It's not you, it's them.

In your haste to preemptively slag off on the other members you forgot to answer his question, an oversight I feel certain you will be eager to rectify.

 

[nahadef]

In your haste to preemptively slag off on the other members you forgot to answer his question, an oversight I feel certain you will be eager to rectify.

Who was slagged off? I was letting the OP know not to take it personally. Are you planning to respectfully help him? Or did you open this thread to give him some bile, and settled for giving it to me instead?

Myself, I am not a native speaker, nor am I fluent to the degree that I would advise someone how to tattoo themselves. Do you suggest I help regardless of my ability?

Cheer up Mike, it's not always about you. Lots of people here 'help' by lecturing instead of actually helping. Or that time you suggested a guy get the kanji for ignorant on him. That was you, right? 'Helpful'. A new member needs a warning about help like that.

 

[thomas]

I believe the Tattoo thread in Post #2 contains everything the OP needs to know. Let's not turn this personal please.

 

[Mike Cash]

Since def can neither refrain from contradicting himself in a single post nor render a single word like "kutabare" in Japanese orthography, I will take up the slack.

くたばれ

クタバレ

I would go with the first one, plus an exclamation mark: くたばれ！

 

[nahadef]

I cannot refrain from contradicting myself in a single post... Yes, I can!

 

[wild]

Thanks a lot - specially to Mike for actually helping me
I will now search for a modern font, and may ask some more people before I really tattoo it, just to be sure.

Cheers

 

[nahadef]

Yes, thanks for helping out and taking up the slack, Mike (really, I need to practice rendering my orthography more, it's so embarrassing).

Wild, you should get more feedback before you tattoo that. It's fine to get a tattoo in hiragana or katakana, but it's really uncommon, to the point that I've never seen it myself personally. Most people want kanji tattoos. That word, I guess there isn't a common kanji for (maybe a native speaker has more info on that). But basically, you may as well just write it out in English if you're going to use plain Japanese letters.

 

[letslearn]

I noticed that くたばる in the dictionary (literately) means to drop dead. It does not use kanji that I could see. Is that because it is an original Japanese verb?

 

[nekojita]

If you're set on doing this, you should get it in the style of this video:


〜ばる is a suffix and apparently くた is connected to 朽ちる (also 腐る may have the same origins).

The internet says it can be 斃る in kanji but I'm not certain of the source for that. At any rate it's not commonly written with kanji.

 

[letslearn]

I can see what you mean 熊を斃す to kill a bear. Maybe over the years it has morphed into くたばれ。

 

[Mike Cash]

I can see what you mean 熊を斃す to kill a bear. Maybe over the years it has morphed into くたばれ。

Danl Boone kutabare???

 

[letslearn]

Daniel Boone was a man, yes a big man. Very funny ha ha. Why not?
Daniel Booneは熊を斃すの大きな男がでした．
I hope that is close?

 

[Mike Cash]

Daniel Boone was a man, yes a big man. Very funny ha ha. Why not?

Daniel Booneは熊を斃すの大きな男がでした．

I hope that is close?

Not really, no.

Try Daniel Boone は熊を斃した大きな男でした。

That hanging が leaves the listener with a "waiting for the other shoe to drop" feeling. What is it doing there?

 

[letslearn]

Not really, no.

Try Daniel Boone は熊を斃した大きな男でした。

That hanging が leaves the listener with a "waiting for the other shoe to drop" feeling. What is it doing there?

I see what you mean. Daniel Boone was a big man that killed a bear but.....
I don't know why I put it there.. perhaps it is because I still have trouble with adjectival phrases

 

[Mike Cash]

I see what you mean. Daniel Boone was a big man that killed a bear but.....
I don't know why I put it there.. perhaps it is because I still have trouble with adjectival phrases

Well, start a thread and let's work on them.

 

[Toritoribe]

I noticed that くたばる in the dictionary (literately) means to drop dead. It does not use kanji that I could see. Is that because it is an original Japanese verb?

Do you mean "Japanese-origin word (和語)" by "original Japanese verb"? What do you think about 見る, 聞く, 話す, 歩く, 思う or any other verbs than -suru verbs (and its variants －す, －ず, －ずる or －じる)?

I can see what you mean 熊を斃す to kill a bear. Maybe over the years it has morphed into くたばれ。

Just for confirmation, do you know the reading of 斃す?

 

[letslearn]

The reading I saw was たおす so together with 熊 くまをたおす。I thought maybe over the years it could have got shortened.
By origin, I meant the word started in japan, I was thinking it must be a fairly new word and it may not have existed at the time kanji was introduced.

 

[Toritoribe]

たおす and くたばる are completely different. They have nothing to do with each other.
くたばる has been used since Heian period . Almost all verbs other than -suru verbs(and their variants) are 和語.

 

[letslearn]

たおす and くたばる are completely different. They have nothing to do with each other.
くたばる has been used since Heian period. Almost all verbs other than -suru verbs(and their variants) are 和語.

Heian period ,Well that certainly blows my new Japanese word thought bubble. Ha ha.
The origin of words is an interesting subject isn't it.

 

[Toritoribe]

Yeah, exactly. I would never have thought to look up the etymology of くたばる if I hadn't seen this thread.

 

[Mike Cash]

Yeah, exactly. I would never have thought to look up the etymology of くたばる if I hadn't seen this thread.

So it didn't come from the boyhood exploits of Daniel Boone? This is disappointing...

 

[Toritoribe]

To tell the truth, I've never heard Daniel Boone. He reminds me of Dances with Wolves.