へのへのもへじ

Japanese

FWOTD – 5 March 2013

へのへのもへじ (henohenomoheji): the traditional face drawn using the characters へ, の, も, and じ.

Etymology

From the hiragana characters used to draw it. The first two he are the eyebrows, the two no are the eyes, the mo is a nose, and the last he is the mouth. The outline of the face is made by the character shi, with the ear formed by the two short strokes of the dakuten (a diacritic indicating a voiced sound, here turning shi into ji).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) へのへのもへじ [hènóhénómóhéꜜjì] (Nakadaka – [6])
• (Tokyo) へのへのもへじ [hènóhénómóꜜhèjì] (Nakadaka – [5])
• IPA^(key): [he̞no̞he̞no̞mo̞he̞ʑi]

Noun

へのへのもへじ • (henohenomoheji) 

1. a face drawn using the hiragana characters へ (he), の (no), も (mo), and じ (ji)
   • 2004, 古野宣雄 [Nobuo Furuno], 影, →ISBN, page 151:

     「家(いえ)の近(ちか)くにあった畑(はたけ)の棚(たな)にカボチャがなっていて、小(ちい)さいうちに、へのへのもへじを書(か)いておくと、大(おお)きくなった時(とき)、大(おお)きな傷(きず)になっていて、誰(だれ)が付(つ)けたかすぐ解(わか)ってしまって、困(こま)ったことあったよネ—」

     “Ie no chikaku ni atta hatake no tana ni kabocha ga natteite, chīsai uchi ni, henohenomoheji o kaiteoku to, ōkiku natta toki, ōki na kizu ni natteite, dare ga tsuketa ka sugu wakatteshimatte, komatta koto atta yo ne—”

     (please add an English translation of this example)

Synonyms

• へへののもへじ (hehenonomoheji)

Related terms

• へのへのもへ (henohenomohe)