[HN Gopher] Watashiato
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       Watashiato
        
       Author : _Microft
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2022-10-23 19:38 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com)
        
       | skmurphy wrote:
       | watashiato n. curiosity about the impact you've had on the lives
       | of the people you know, wondering which of your harmless actions
       | or long-forgotten words might have altered the plot of their
       | stories in ways you'll never get to see. ---
       | 
       | I don't do enough to express gratitude for the small kindnesses,
       | the offhand insights,and the casual favors that opened doors and
       | changed my perspective on possibilities in meaningful ways. I
       | need to recommit to expressing appropriate gratitude. My
       | resolution for Thanksgiving.
        
       | beauHD wrote:
       | I've experienced this. I overthink things, and one day I was
       | wondering if I ever altered the path of someone's life
       | significantly due to my words / actions. I don't really mind if I
       | didn't, but it would be nice to know.
       | 
       | I've often said something profound that shattered someone's
       | illusions about a subject, but whether they're more enriched as a
       | person because of that is hard to say.
        
       | iandanforth wrote:
       | This might be translated as 'after me' (watashi (Si ) I, ato (Hou
       | ) later) but I can't find any actual etymology.
        
         | TeeTwoLee wrote:
         | I see you were similarly confused. The word was invented by the
         | author.
        
         | sidedishes wrote:
         | I believe they all come from the single book, Dictionary of
         | Obscure Sorrows, referenced in the blog. All the terms in there
         | are new words! (The breakdown you have is what I would've
         | guessed too, though.)
        
         | Cyberdog wrote:
         | Neither can I; there's no "watashiato" in Jisho or d.goo. Just
         | searching the net returns this page: https://www.kankou-
         | gifu.jp/spot/detail_6769.html where it's written as Du shiJi ,
         | which would translate to something closer to "the ruins of a
         | crossing" and seems to be used literally for a marker
         | designating the former location of a river crossing ferry.
         | 
         | Maybe this isn't Japanese, or maybe it was made up by a non-
         | Japanese speaker who searched for the words "me" and "after" in
         | an E-to-J dictionary and then mashed them together. I'm leaning
         | towards the latter.
        
       | TeeTwoLee wrote:
       | This initially confused me. I assumed the dictionary of obscure
       | sorrows was a list of existing words for obscure sorrows, but I
       | know watashi ato means "I" "after" literally in Japanese so it
       | didn't sound like a real word. The words in the blog are actually
       | invented to describe obscure sorrows.
        
       | vore wrote:
       | While I like the concept, I wish they didn't choose to name this
       | with such orientalist mysticism.
        
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