Quote:
Originally Posted by RobinMask
I'm so thankful you explained that! It's been bugging me for ages how in some animes I've seen they keep calling a character 'bald' when he's not in fact bald . . . I found it strange, because 'hage' translates as bald, but it appeared they were actually using another term to mean a literal 'a lack of hair'. So I'm guessing 'hage' is basically just a general insult? I did look at the link you gave for the original poster, but I'm nowhere near at that level of Japanese to make much sense of it . . .
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ハゲ is a fairly often used cuss word among male teenagers if not among adult speakers. High school boys call each other that all the time when none of them are even partially bald. They use the word both jokingly and in serious quarrels. It would be the Japanese equivakent of "motherf*****", "f*******", etc.
Translation is an art so one could choose from many words that fit the context. With English being a rather colorful language in the swearing department, the choices would be numerous. Perhaps, "baldie" would be the only inappropriate translation as it will not be a cuss word in English unless someone was really bald.