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They are adding Otaku to the Websters Dictionary
otaku
(noun) : a person or persons who are obsessed with anime, manga, and Japanese culture in general
There were many otaku at the convention.
Comments
Eh, that puts it only slightly above the level of "Dord."
^^ The way you quote it makes it sound like Webster's held a convention on dictionaries and a lot of otaku rocked up.
That would explain their inclusion, I suppose...
I'm not even sure if that definition is really accurate. Outside of Japan, it doesn't really imply an obsession, just a strong interest.
I can't remember; does a legitimate otaku have to be obsessed with Japanese culture, specifically? I thought it could be anything that's abnormal to obsess over.
Well it has different meanings in the original language, but that's to be expected for a loanword. We already have words to describe nerds in general, so there's not much motivation to use "otaku" unless Japan is somehow relevant to the context.
Everest - I've never seen it used in English except for an obsessive anime/manga fan. I don't think it's even Japanese culture in general. I mean, if you converted to Zen Buddhism, sat around doing calligraphy whilst drinking green tea and turned your garden into a Japanese garden, you'd probably not get called an otaku (in the English-speaking world, anyway).
Do they have the original Japanese meaning? I remember "otaku" in Japanese is something like "a person so obsessed a particular hobby that s/he is socially retarded."
Nope, the original meaning of お宅 (otaku) is generally a more polite word for someone else's house, which you use when 家 (ie) just doesn't convey the right amount of formality.
Oh, you were talking about the slang version. Yeah pretty much, though when just saying otaku what comes to mind these days in Japan, is also mostly videogames/manga/anime whether as if you make a qualification in front of it like "military otaku" you can still use it for other stuff.
Don't really see why they need to care about the Japanese version, as they are most likely going for the colloquial (and I use the term lightly, doubt it's used outside of fan-circles at all) English version, which I'm fairly certain, is pretty much big anime/manga fan.
^^Yeah, I'm not really sure about the Japanese culture part either, though I guess they only mean in conjunction with an interest in anime/manga, still there are lots of "otaku" who really don't care about Japanese culture outside the scope of anime/manga. Because if it's just an interest in Japanese culture, a big one would probably be classified as japanophilia, which is an already existing and perfectly valid word.
Well, to those of us on the outside, it's an interest in modern Japanese pop culture with an emphasis on recent Japanese creative media. To some otakus, though, it's Japanese culture in general, because their idea of Japanese culture is disproportionately focused on modern Japanese pop culture, especially recent Japanese creative media, with almost token representation of Japanese cuisine, social mores, myths/legends/history/lore, and lifestyle.
Oh wow, and suddenly several tropes are officially immune to the "Non-english word in the title!!" argument.
wait, how many tropes have the word "Otaku" in their titles?
Cosplay Otaku Girl, OtakuSurrogate...Hmmmm, not many.
Well, and Otaku itself. I can't recall if there are any more than that.
I think Jack Butler would commit suicide.
If they put kawaii in the dictionary I will choke a bitch. I will chocke SEVERAL bitches.
Kawaii's still rather niche, no?
@Neo_Crimson: Will those be kawaii bitches?
A TVT title search for Otaku.
I counted seven tropes and a shitton of tropers who deserve to be punched for referring to themselves as otakus.
Well, could be worse, could be weeaboos
AHMAH KAWAAAAAII WEEABOOOOO, YEE-HAW!
...wait, I think I did that wrong.
oh god it hurts to laugh
^^ We all thought that the Japanese guards on the Burma Railway were starving and maltreating their prisoners because they'd been brainwashed into hate by an authoritarian fascist regime.
But really they were just being tsundere.