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Why does お[馬鹿]{ばか}さん contain an honorific? If you're basically calling someone
silly, why be "polite" about it? Also, what is the difference in meaning
between お馬鹿さん and just 馬鹿 (I hear the former much less frequently)?
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2012-04-30T20:56:31.133
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2012-06-12T23:40:49.863
2012-05-01T03:05:36.417
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honorifics bikago
Why does お[馬鹿]{ばか}さん contain honorific お?
お馬鹿さん isn't "idiot"; it is softer, more like "silly". Also note the -san
suffix.

If a little boy named Daisuke is looking for his cap, while actually wearing
it, you could say, 今日、大ちゃんは ちょっと お馬鹿さんになってきた、ね！ 灯台もと暗し

This is soft compared to something abrupt like おまえが馬鹿だよ！

There is a need in language to have a soft way to say "silly".

This is not to say that we can wrap "o- and -san" (or "-sama") around any
derogatory word and make it into a nice word. "Obakasan" is a word.

Or ... can we?

Let's consider the word 犯人 (criminal, guilty). Would it ever make sense to
have the word ご犯人様 (o-hannin-sama?)？(We use the go- prefix because hannin is a
Sino-Japanese compound, and there is no o- exception for it.) You might think
not, right? It is terrible to be a criminal.

But, take a look at this page:

<http://happy.ap.teacup.com/sasahirobase/431.html>

This is someone Japanese person's blog with pictures. One pictures shows a
damaged wooden floor with scratches.

The following picture is a cute picture of a dog. The caption is ... ご犯人様です

This expresses "this is our little culprit".

The blogger doesn't hate the culprit (quite the opposite), and the "crime" is
petty.
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2012-04-30T21:09:33.690
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2012-05-01T11:29:02.847
2012-05-01T11:29:02.847
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Back in the 80's, baka! as an expletive was a vulgar swear word. A Diet member
used it on another politico on TV and I still remember the public outrage. Of
course, no one said 'it sucks' on American TV either back then. A better
definition of baka would be sh*thead not 'fool'. As for the honorific,
remember that Omae (you) is both a fighting word level insult and a term of
endearment depending on whom you are addressing. I would look at the actual
biographies of the sayer and the sayee, and would be very interested to hear
how social norms have changed from the boom era when I lived there.
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2012-05-05T04:28:15.577
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