tsundoku
Language: Japanese · [tsɯndokɯ] · Pronunciation: tsoon-DOH-koo
Meaning
buying books and letting them pile up unread — book-hoarding
The story
The word is a Meiji-era pun: tsunde oku, to pile up and leave, with doku, reading, tucked in at the end. Japanese attaches no shame to it; the pile simply exists, and grows. English book people have lately adopted it alongside their own coinage, book-hoarding.
The four rounds
- Which language is it from?
- Japanese
- What does it literally say?
- Pile-up-and-read
- Where would you hear it?
- Checkout at a bookshop, arms full again
- What does it mean?
- Buying books that pile up unread
How it went
Harder than most words so far.
Round two, literally, was where most points went.
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