Don't get the meaning of the sentence "意味ありげな笑いを浮かべた"

Question

I am not sure about the meaning of this sentence.

意味ありげな笑いを浮かべた

"(He) showed a meaningful laughter" ?

Is that correct?

意味ありげな笑いを浮かべた>>>more poetically, 意味ありげな[笑]{え}みを浮かべた。^^ — , Dec 09 '12 at 09:33
Yes, I think in combination with 浮かべる, 笑み fits better than 笑い... Where did you find the sentence? — Earthliŋ, Dec 09 '12 at 09:54
こんな感じでしょうか? >>> http://lohas.nicoseiga.jp/thumb/1680577i (malicious grin?) or...>>> http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfdhSn-RaWzh0-01lr6fGCj3jISN4hedB2dLB3c2IL2aByoNU8Gn6TS9BCWw — , Dec 09 '12 at 17:24

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 09 '12 at 07:49

意味ありげ has the same meaning as 意味がある気配 (and may be a contraction of this phrase). It means, just like you suggest, "meaningful" or in a longer version "indicative of having meaning".
笑い is more often a smile than a laughter.
浮かべる is related to 浮かぶ "to float/to surface".

Thus the full sentence is (very much like you suggested)

意味ありげな笑いを浮かべた
He showed a meaningful smile.

or, more poetically

A meaningful smile appeared on his face.

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:43

I would say that 意味ありげ comes from 意味 "meaning" and 有{あ}り気{げ} "appearing like"/"seeming to be".

Daijirin says 意味ありげ means 何か意味がありそうな様子, or "a state of appearing to have meaning", the 〜げ presumably coming from the 〜気{げ} which means more-or-less the same as 〜そう (see also What is the usage of 〜げ and how does it differ from 〜そう or 〜っぽい?), so I think "appearing to have meaning" might be a more literal translation but that "meaningful" is probably close enough.
The 笑い here means "smile" I think.
I think the transitive verb 浮かべる here means "to express (on one's face)" (def #2 at Daijisen), coming from the core meaning of 浮かべる of "to float"/"to launch (a ship on water etc)".

So I think the translation "(He) expressed a meaningful smile on (his) face" would be close.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 08:18

1

Cypher and userxxxx have covered the grammar but if you were struggling with "a meaningful smile" then perhaps it could be translated as:

he wore a pregnant smile on his face

or, perhaps, dependng on context:

he allowed a pregnant smile to cross his face

笑い can be smile, chuckle, snigger, giggle or smile but when I came across the following in the textbook そうまとめ文法N２：

男は意味ありげな笑いを浮かべた。

I imagined a small huddle in corner, whispering, and took the line to mean:

The men let out a meaningful laugh.

(again it probably comes down to context.) The following expressions are useful to know:

自信ありげconfident laugh

自信なさげ laugh lacking in confidence

自慢げboastful

edited Jun 17 '20 at 08:18

Community

answered Dec 09 '12 at 12:45

Tim

1

ok, thx. My sentence is from this N2 book. I don't have more context, it is standing alone maybe that made it hard to understand for me. Thx – toobee Dec 10 '12 at 00:09
1

For me, "a knowing smile" is another natural translation. – jogloran Dec 10 '12 at 02:25

3 Answers3