jmdict 1259180 Active (id#2323216)
見すぼらしい； 見窄らしい [rK]
【 みすぼらしい [ichi2] 】
  1. [adj-i] [uk]
    • shabby
    • unsightly
    • unkempt
Conjugations
History:
    • A 2024-11-19 19:57:26 Jim Breen (id#2323216)
    • Comments
      Oscar Wilde was on the ball.
    • A* 2024-11-19 05:10:22 Brian Krznarich (id#2323129)
    • Comments
      Seconding Stephen's effort to remove "seedy" in 2022.  Also removing from 貧相, which J-J dictionaries use this term to define. (貧相 is what I encountered in the wild)

As an AmE speaker, this word has only one English sense to me, and it always includes  "potentially honest dishonest/illegal".  As such, there is nothing for the other glosses to disambiguate. For American speakers "seedy" *is* unambiguous. As such, as long as "seedy" remains on this entry, for Americans it imputes a nuance to "見すぼらしい" that does not exist.

At the same time, any translator (including UK-based native-English-speaking translators who see no issue with "seedy") who uses this gloss will corrupt the translation if their audience includes Americans.

For these reasons, unless we're willing to mark it "seedy([British English])", which I know we do not do (but perhaps should), I think it needs to be dropped.

I have a growing little collection of "likely-to-be-misleading glosses" which I will someday address on github as a whole.  Reminded by this entry, I actually spent several hours trying to draft that post yesterday, but it's just too much to address in a way that I think will be well-received right now.  I'm going to use this edit as a datapoint, and save the big-picture post for another day.  Any comments here will help streamline that github discussion if/when I manage to get there.
    • Diff
      @@ -21 +20,0 @@
-<gloss>seedy</gloss>
    • A 2022-06-09 10:04:20 Jim Breen
    • Comments
      However 見窄らしい is the form that's in the Ichiman reference list. I think it can be dropped from the kanji.
    • Diff
      @@ -6 +5,0 @@
-<ke_pri>ichi2</ke_pri>
    • A* 2022-06-09 07:11:58 Marcus Richert
    • Comments
      I don't think it really makes sense to tag a rK form with any prio tag.
    • Diff
      @@ -5,0 +6 @@
+<ke_pri>ichi2</ke_pri>
@@ -10 +10,0 @@
-<ke_pri>ichi2</ke_pri>
    • A 2022-06-09 02:40:01 Jim Breen
    • Comments
      OK. I think "seedy" is OK - it fits the other glosses. Maybe danger/illegality is an AmE nuance.
    • Diff
      @@ -10 +10 @@
-<ke_pri>ichi1</ke_pri>
+<ke_pri>ichi2</ke_pri>
@@ -14 +14 @@
-<re_pri>ichi1</re_pri>
+<re_pri>ichi2</re_pri>
@@ -21,0 +22 @@
+<gloss>seedy</gloss>
  6. (show/hide 1 older history records)
View entry in alternate formats: jel | edict | jmdict xml | jmdictdb xml

Notes

  • Click on the entry seq# to see all versions of the entry. 　　　　　　
  • ⇒,⇔,⇐ Denote cross references (xrefs). ⇒ shows an xref from this entry sense to some other entry. ⇐ shows an xref on some other entry that points to this one; to change, edit the other entry. ⇔ indicates two xrefs, one in each direction.
  • Cross references marked with an asterisk (*) after the seq# denote a reference to an unapproved entry. These will disappear when the unapproved entry is approved.