Nureginu (Innocent Sins)

Today I will talk about the Japanese term "nureginu."

The literal meaning is "wet clothes," and it means "innocent sins" or "unfounded rumors."

When you want to mean "to accuse someone of falsely," you can say "nureginu wo kiseru" by using the verb "kiru," which means "to wear."

Originally, "nureginu" meant "clothes wetted by water."

There are some theories about the etymology, and one of them comes from the following old story:

A stepmother envied the beauty of husband's daughter by a previous marriage, and she put a wet cloth of a fisherman who lived nearby in the daughter's room.

The daughter's father looked the cloth, and he was misled into thinking that she stole the fisherman's cloth, then he killed his daughter.

濡れ衣

今日は「濡れ衣」という言葉を紹介します。

「濡れ衣」は、「無実の罪」や「根拠のない噂」などを意味します。

「誰かに無実の罪をかぶせる」ことを言うときは、「濡れ衣を着せる」のように「着る」という動詞が用いられます。

もともと「濡れ衣」は、文字通り「水に濡れた衣服」を表す言葉でした。

語源の説は幾つかありますが、そのうちの一つは以下の昔話からきているというものです。

継母が先妻の娘の美しさを妬み、近くに住む漁夫の濡れた衣を娘の寝室に置きました。

これを見て、娘が漁夫の衣を盗んだと勘違いした実父は、娘を殺してしまいました。