I'm reading a passage from a book, here one of the characters is making a few
observations about the personality of another character (慶介 - Keisuke) who has
moved up in status and is a new member amongst the upper echelons of the
aristocracy thereby replacing the old predecessors in the story's universe.

> 先代も貴族の悪い所を煮詰めたような傲慢な男だったが、この慶介という男は表面上は貴族らしからぬ空気も感じさせていた。

I've hit a snag here, I'm not sure how one would parse
"先代も貴族の悪い所を煮詰めたような傲慢な男だった", more specifically "悪い所を煮詰めたような" it seems like an
idiom to me and I'm not sure what it means, I've tried searching on Google and
I got quite a few hits for this phrase, but no explanation about what it
means.

Any help is greatly appreciated!
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-29T21:30:36.133
52822
2017-08-31T01:00:51.897
25588
question
idioms parsing
Is "悪い所を煮詰めたような" an idiom? If so what does it mean?
If no one else is answering..

I myself would **not** call the expression 「悪{わる}い所{ところ}を煮詰{につ}めたような」 an
"idiom" because it simply means what it literally means.

One can certainly 煮詰める intangible objects ('human characteristics', in this
case), not just tangible objects that you can throw into pots.

My own TL attempt:

> "His predecessor (also) was a haughty man with all (sorts of) aristocratic
> vice condensed into him, but this man Keisuke apparently had a non-
> aristocratic air about him."

Without further context, it would be impossible to translate the two 「も's」
very well. The most difficult words in Japanese are single-syllable-long and
are written in hiragana.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-30T16:34:45.540
52855
2017-08-31T00:45:18.593
2017-08-31T00:45:18.593
9831
52822
answer
While your question has already been answered, I'll throw in a quick breakdown
of 煮詰める. It does mean to "boil down", but your problem understanding the word
lies with the meaning of "boil down" itself.

To boil down means to "reduce quantity by boiling off liquid" or in cooking
terms, reduction. What this does in cooking is gives you a thicker, more
condense flavor for soup or sauce. In English, the use of "boil down" focuses
on "letting the extra liquid evaporate" while in Japanese, 煮詰める focuses on the
"thickening/condensing" aspect.

So in your line 「貴族の悪い所を煮詰めたような」, would mean "it's like he had all the bad
characteristics of aristocrats 煮詰めた" → "it's like he had all the bad
characteristics of aristocrats _boiled and thickened_ " → "it's like he had
all the bad characteristics of aristocrats _condensed into him_ ".

It's just one of the cases where the Japanese and English point to the exact
same word, but what is taken from that word differed by language. A case of
the glass being half empty or half full.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-30T17:36:56.033
52858
2017-08-31T01:00:51.897
2017-08-31T01:00:51.897
9831
9508
52822
answer