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ながら族 (nagarazoku)

Pronunciation: nah-gah-rah-zoh-koo, koo as in coup(Don't let your English stick out its head here, please).

Part of speech: noun, adjective.

Meaning: a person who does a lot of things at the same time, a multitasking person.

In play: Whenever I have a computer problem, I have to turn down the music so that I can think straight. My wife, on the other hand, is such a nagarazoku that she can answer the phone, wash the dishes, cook and send off the kids to school at the same time.

Word history:After the wearing of the 着物, the practice of 空手 and 柔道 and the strike of the 津波 (for the kanji-impaired, see below), today's good word also comes from the land of the Rising Sun, from nagara, a verbal suffix expressing simultaneity of actions and zoku, family, tribe.

着物 - kimono
空手 - karate
柔道 - judo
津波 - tsunami

Brazilian dude

Fascinating word for an old 講道館 habitué, BD, but didn't you mean to place it in the Good Word Suggestions folder ?...

Henri

Maybe. What's the difference? The topcats are the only ones who can start a thread here?

Brazilian dude

No, BD, Henri was referring to the defined role of this thread:

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.

-Tim

Henry, weren't you a judoka before? Man, you can change your interests as some people change their shirts.

Brazilian dude

Just that consistency, as is widely known, is the bugaboo of little minds, and mine is small, indeed....

Henri

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.

Oh, I guess I'm fine print-impaired then. Will I be damned to hell for this or can I expiate my sins after seven Hail-Marys (if only I could recite that, hehehe)?

Brazilian dude

... weren't you a judoka before? Man, you can change your interests as some people change their shirts.

Indeed I can, BD, even if rather than changing I simply add new ones to old ones, leaving my little mind as cluttered as anybody's attic. But here I've only substituted a metaphor for a more straight-forward noun....

Henri

PS : Seven Ave Marias will do very nicely, thank you !...

BD, the TOP CATS have all placed topics in the wrong area, you are officially a TOP CAT now!

Katy

Thank you, Katy.

Brazilian dude

And besides, it's nine Hail Marys, not seven... In honor of the top cats.

-Tim

Tim

And besides, it's nine Hail Marys, not seven... In honor of the top cats

Hmmm, was I the only one who caught something in his example:

My wife, on the other hand, is such a nagarazoku that she can answer the phone, wash the dishes, cook and send off the kids to school at the same time.

And him bemoaning his dateless state whenever possible... Sorry, dude, but penitential Hail Mary's are generally assigned in tens, no doubt to match the decades of beads on the rosary. On the other hand, presuming that this was just "hypotheticly" an example and you are (a) not actually married and (b) "chronicly" bereft of female companionship, you are absolved of saying any Hail Mary's whatsoever. Posting to an unexpected thread is not a violation of dogma, so far as I remember.
gailr

... Posting to an unexpected thread is not a violation of dogma, so far as I remember.gailr

Upon your elevation, Your Eminence, we shall have to take steps to correct this unseemly laxity....

Henri

ブラジル男(burajiru-otoko, i.e., BD)殿に一言申し上げ候。

ながら族とは、一つのことに集中できず、いくつものことをやりかけてはやめ、やめかけてはやりかける中途半端な性格を指すもの也。例えていうなればフラミニウス奴のようなるだらしなさを表すものか。

英語にて謂う所の、versatile characterやmulti-taskerなどの好意的な評価は、決して「ながら族」の意味するところではないことを銘記すべく申し上げ候。

Flaminius

decades of beads on the rosary

?
That's more complicated that I thought then. I'll go straight to hell, I'll never learn that.

Brazilian dude