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My gf loves me wearing striped shirts, as I'm not a skinny person (Japanese standard skinny, stateside I'm skin and bone) they naturally make me look fat!

She always says "ボーダーが好き" and I always think "No, I hate the the (Mexican/Canadian/Any border! ...Tijuana is dope though!)

Why ボーダー？ Why not ストライプ or something?

Y12K
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    She said 「ボーダー」, not "border", right? Those are two different things. When Japanese-speakers says 「プリン」, they refer to "flan" 99.9% of the time, not "pudding". –  Apr 05 '17 at 14:50
  • Why can't translations be 1=いち... lol – Y12K Apr 05 '17 at 14:57
  • @keepkun I don't know vertical striped shirts. – Takahiro Waki Apr 05 '17 at 15:23
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    Another example that makes me wonder more and more why Japanese people love katakanizing everything instead of using more classical Japanese words. How about just 縦線 and 横線.. or why not using the kanji 縞 to make up a word? I actually think 縞々 means just "striped". – Tommy Apr 06 '17 at 06:12
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    @Tommy Try think what "horizontal stripes" would be in Japanese? よこしま? – broccoli facemask Apr 06 '17 at 15:17
  • Lol.. Yeah that sounds funny but homophonous words are everywhere in Japanese anyway (if your point was the confusion with 邪ま). Of course my question deep down would be much more general and would require more details and explanations of course. Here I just wanted to throw in there something I got to think about a lot recently (and I was a bit provocative on purpose :). – Tommy Apr 06 '17 at 23:26

2 Answers2

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ストライプ vs. ボーダー

=

Vertical Stripes vs. Horizontal Stripes

Until about two decades ago, both were called 「ストライプ」. Then, the fashion industry people invented the name 「ボーダー」 to refer to "horizontal stripes" as a buzzword to make it popular and did they ever succeed!

Chocolate
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  • So vertical "ストライプ"=ストライプ but horizontal "ストライプ"=ボーダー? – Y12K Apr 05 '17 at 15:01
  • They're both "stripes"! haha – Y12K Apr 05 '17 at 15:05
  • That's like calling a pink pig a pig and calling a light pink pig something else... – Y12K Apr 05 '17 at 15:08
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    keepkun, or rather like calling a pink pig a pig, but a hairy pig a boar, which is exactly what people are doing. I think that it's great that languages evolve and incorporate conveniences into them. With this you say "border" instead of the long and tedious "horizontal stripes" – a20 Apr 05 '17 at 16:22
  • @Genos Meanwhile in China, [a white horse isn't a horse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_a_white_horse_is_not_a_horse). – broccoli facemask Apr 06 '17 at 15:15
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ボーダー is a strange word used for a trend fashion among of jevenile, young and middle age generations.

And I have no idea why this is also a border dress... enter image description here