お手上げ

Japanese
Kanji in this term
手 上
て
Grade: 1		 あ(げ)
Grade: 1

Alternative forms

Etymology

Compound of 御 (o, honorific prefix) +‎ 手 (te, “hand, hands”) +‎ 上げ (age, “raising”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 上げる ageru “to raise something”).[1][2]

Pronunciation
  • (Tokyo) おてあげ [òtéágé] (Heiban – [0])[2]
  • IPA(key): [o̞te̞a̠ɡe̞]

Noun

お手上(てあ)げ • (oteage) 

  1. throwing up one's hands: giving up, quitting
    こんなに遅(おそ)くてはもうお手(て)上(あ)げだ。
    Konna ni osokute wa mō oteage da.
    Running this late, it's to the point where we're just giving up.

Usage notes

This term is used as a noun in Japanese. Note that recombining the constituent parts of this phrase to produce the verb phrase 手を上げる (te o ageru) can produce a different meaning, depending on context: “to raise one's hand [against someone, as if to strike]”.

Synonyms

References
  1. Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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