Hage = Bald

[masaegu]

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 . . .

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.

[chryuop]

それを読むのは本当に長い時間がかかりました　（笑） 。でも、新しくて面白い言葉を学んだんです。もちろん 、ダボという意味の別の表現なんてに興味がありません でした。しかし、「はげ山」ってきっと実用的な単語で すね。
今、ｍａｓａｅｇｕさんの指導はいつものことですね。 とてもありがたいね。

P.S. Learn Italian, we got many more colorful expressions than English LOL.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by masaegu

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.

Which of course explains why my hostmother kept telling me not to refer to bald men as ハゲ.

[chryuop]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Which of course explains why my hostmother kept telling me not to refer to bald men as ハゲ.

LOL languages must have something against hair LOL. In Italian we have a word which means "long bearded man", but mind not to use it since it is very offensive (lol when I was a little kid I used to call a friend of my parents like that and I wouldn't understand why they would get mad LOL). We instead say someone who has a long beard.

[steven]

I've heard the word used literally (although it's disrespectful) on many occasions. I've also heard the term "kappa". One funny way I heard someone say it before was basically something like, "wow, I think that guy has too many male hormones".

[MMM]

Originally Posted by steven

I've heard the word used literally (although it's disrespectful) on many occasions. I've also heard the term "kappa". One funny way I heard someone say it before was basically something like, "wow, I think that guy has too many male hormones".

You mean the bald river creature?