78072
I was reading a manga called _Rengoku ni Warau_ and Kaishin said:

  * ったく、人をこき使いやがって

あのジジィほっつき歩いてやがる

Jisho says that こき使い means pushing someone around or to work someone hard but
it doesn't seem to fit with the context. Kaishin said that to Goemon, a fellow
ninja that was trying to convince him to desert the battlefield and who has
been by Tanba's (ジジィ's) side for many years, so I don't think "pushing someone
around" would be a good translation.

Moreover, I would like to know the origin of こき使い's こき.
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2020-06-17T18:42:50.000
78068
2020-06-17T22:56:20.793
32264
question
meaning translation words etymology
How was こき使う formed?
こき使う is a compound verb made of
[扱く](https://jisho.org/search/%E6%89%B1%E3%81%8F) and 使う. 扱く can be read both
as こく and しごく (こく is less common), but they originally mean roughly the same
thing, "to rub/scrub", and by extension, "to work someone hard". From
[Compound Verb Lexicon](https://db4.ninjal.ac.jp/vvlexicon/db/):

[![screenshot](https://i.stack.imgur.com/K03d6.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/K03d6.png)

I don't know the story, but こき使う only means "to work someone hard". Do you
understand 人 in this context probably refers to "me", the speaker? 人をこき使いやがって
means "[Someone] is driving me like a horse".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-17T22:56:20.793
78072
2020-06-17T22:56:20.793
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78068
answer