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I have 2 older sisters. When talking to other people about them, do i refer to them both as 姉 or do i refer to the younger one as 姉 and the older one as 姉上?

Thanks!

P.S I thought this question would have already been asked, but couldn't find any. Even Google didn't have much on it.

Richard Watson
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  • ( How / why did question get 400 views in 7 hours? ) – HizHa Sep 06 '16 at 22:07
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  • Thank you. ___ (When there're more comments, i'll prob remove this comment.) ____________ In the meantime, here's a Haiku (related to the question by OP) i've loved : 長女次女に瞳（め）澄む夫（つま）来よ破魔矢二本 ___ by　中村草田男（1901-83） – HizHa Sep 07 '16 at 00:10

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姉上【あねうえ】 is a very old-fashioned honorific word for 姉. You would hear someone respectfully addressing their older sister with 姉上 mostly in samurai dramas. But you can never use it to distinguish your two sisters.

To distinguish your two older sisters, you can use 上【うえ】の姉【あね】 (older) and 下【した】の姉【あね】 (younger). If you had three older sisters, you can say 一番上の姉, 真ん中の姉/2番目の姉, 一番下の姉/3番目の姉.

naruto
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In writing, you could write 長姉 and 次姉 (or 二姉) (and 三姉 or 末妹).

http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1137003981

一番下の弟妹から見て、一番上の兄姉を長兄・長姉と呼びますよね。 その次は次兄・次姉になると思うのですが、その次の兄姉はなんと呼ぶのでしょうか？三兄・三姉と呼ぶのでしょうか？ また逆に長兄・長姉から見て一番下の弟妹は、末弟・末妹と呼ぶことができますが、 .......

Community
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HizHa
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You could also use the following, if they happen to be the oldest and second oldest sisters:
長女(ちょうじょ): oldest sister
次女 (じじょ): second oldest sister

hisao m
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  • 「私の長女」「私の次女」 mean "my oldest **daughter**" "my second oldest **daughter**" respectively, so how/in what sentence structure can I use 「長女」「次女」 to mean "oldest/second oldest **sister**"? – Chocolate Oct 14 '16 at 06:06