jmdict
2419470
Active
(id:
2223772)
<entry id="2223772" stat="A" corpus="jmdict" type="jmdict">
<ent_corp type="jmdict">jmdict</ent_corp>
<ent_seq>2419470</ent_seq>
<k_ele>
<keb>庇を貸して母屋を取られる</keb>
</k_ele>
<k_ele>
<keb>ひさしを貸して母屋を取られる</keb>
<ke_inf>&sK;</ke_inf>
</k_ele>
<k_ele>
<keb>庇を貸して母屋をとられる</keb>
<ke_inf>&sK;</ke_inf>
</k_ele>
<k_ele>
<keb>ひさしを貸して母屋をとられる</keb>
<ke_inf>&sK;</ke_inf>
</k_ele>
<r_ele>
<reb>ひさしをかしておもやをとられる</reb>
</r_ele>
<sense>
<pos>&exp;</pos>
<pos>&v1;</pos>
<misc>&id;</misc>
<gloss>to have one's kindness taken advantage of</gloss>
<gloss>give him an inch and he'll take a mile</gloss>
<gloss g_type="lit">to lend out the eaves but have one's whole house taken</gloss>
</sense>
<sense>
<pos>&exp;</pos>
<pos>&v1;</pos>
<misc>&id;</misc>
<gloss>to have a favor returned with spite</gloss>
</sense>
<info>
<audit time="2008-11-21 00:00:00" stat="A">
<upd_detl>Entry created</upd_detl>
</audit>
<audit time="2014-12-03 03:44:03" stat="A">
<upd_uid>Marcus</upd_uid>
<upd_name>Marcus Richert</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_diff>@@ -12 +12 @@
-<misc>&id;</misc>
+<misc>&proverb;</misc></upd_diff>
</audit>
<audit time="2018-05-21 12:51:11" stat="A">
<upd_uid>Marcus</upd_uid>
<upd_name>Marcus Richert</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_diff>@@ -13,2 +13,2 @@
-<gloss>Give him an inch and he'll take an ell</gloss>
-<gloss>Give him an inch and he'll take a yard</gloss>
+<gloss>give him an inch and he'll take an ell</gloss>
+<gloss>give him an inch and he'll take a yard</gloss></upd_diff>
</audit>
<audit time="2022-07-16 16:55:33" stat="A" unap="true">
<upd_name>Stephen Kraus</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_detl>I've only ever heard "mile" in this expression, not "ell" or "yard"</upd_detl>
<upd_refs>れる is v1
No n-grams for the full expression, but it is in the kokugos.
Google N-gram Corpus Counts
╭─ーーーーーーーー─┬───────╮
│ 母屋を取られる │ 2,946 │
│ 母屋を取られます │ 112 │
│ 母屋を取られない │ 58 │
│ 母屋を取られた │ 461 │
│ 母屋を取られて │ 120 │
╰─ーーーーーーーー─┴───────╯</upd_refs>
<upd_diff>@@ -11,0 +12 @@
+<pos>&v1;</pos></upd_diff>
</audit>
<audit time="2022-07-17 11:50:57" stat="A">
<upd_uid>jwb</upd_uid>
<upd_name>Jim Breen</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_detl>The inch/ell version has been in English for a very long time.</upd_detl>
</audit>
<audit time="2023-03-03 12:40:29" stat="A" unap="true">
<upd_name>Brian Krznarich</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_detl>Alternate suggestion, single gloss only:
give someone an inch and they'll take a mile
========= Long winded reasoning
Before adding a new entry for a variant of this Japanese idiom, I'd like to add to the discussion on the current glosses, and see if something different might be considered.
Google N-gram Corpus Counts
庇を貸して母屋 1530
軒を貸して母屋 908 NEW
Adding to Stephen's comment, I have also have never heard the "ell" formation (though it's fair to say I'm not well versed in literature). Kids these days I guess... (I'm 42). I also immediately though "wouldn't mile be better than yard?" Obviously all of these formulations, and a number of variants (give 'em an inch, give them an inch, give someone an inch) are all in circulation(with "ell" appearing to be the origin)
Currently, Cambridge Dictionary online has a single, modern / gender-neutral formulation:
- give someone an inch and they'll take a mile
No mention of yards or ells. If it were me, I would just use this gloss alone. I think it's likely to be readily understood by native English speakers, and safe to use for Japanese learners who acquire it via jmdict (I would not necessarily say the same of the "inch/ell" formulation).
=====
Just looking at cute quotations and comic images, if you do a google image search for just the quoted prefix, you get the following rough counts for "miles", "yards", "foot", "ells", and "furlongs"(hah)... As you move toward gender neutrality (~modern usage), miles seems to gain in popularity.
"give someone an inch" 17 miles, 1 yard, 0 ells
"give them an inch" 12 miles, 2 yards, 0 ells
"give em an inch". 6 miles, 2 x "foot", 1 furlong, 0 ells
"give him an inch" 3 miles, 5 yards, 2 ells (there were a bunch of additional t-shirts with the "yard" expression)
Also anecdotally, a twitter search for "give someone an inch" seems to be entirely "miles" (though other formulations sometimes yield different results)</upd_detl>
<upd_refs>Cambridge phrasing:
give someone an inch and they'll take a mile
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/give-someone-an-inch-and-they-ll-take-a-mile
Weblio gloss for 庇を貸して母屋を取られる
https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/give+him+an+inch+and+he%27ll+take+a+mile
Give him an inch and he'll take a mile [a yard].
彼にひさしを貸したら母屋まで取られるよ
Totally Japanese reference for variant: 軒のきを貸して母屋おもやを取られる
https://japanese-note.jp/noki-omoya/
英文 Give him an inch and he’ll take a mile.
彼に庇を貸したら母屋まで取られるよ
（直訳:彼に少しでも与えたら善意に付け込まれるよ)</upd_refs>
</audit>
<audit time="2023-03-03 20:31:59" stat="A" unap="true">
<upd_uid>Marcus</upd_uid>
<upd_name>Marcus Richert</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_detl>The Japanese is actually an idiom rather than a proverb (my bad). Not sure the "give sb an inch" can be worked into an idiom?
"to give someone an inch and have a wole yard taken"? it's a little awkward.</upd_detl>
<upd_refs>Koj imidas</upd_refs>
<upd_diff>@@ -13 +13 @@
-<misc>&proverb;</misc>
+<misc>&id;</misc>
@@ -15,0 +16,7 @@
+<gloss g_type="lit">to lend out the leaves but have the whole house taken from one</gloss>
+</sense>
+<sense>
+<pos>&exp;</pos>
+<pos>&v1;</pos>
+<misc>&id;</misc>
+<gloss>to have a favor returned with spite</gloss></upd_diff>
</audit>
<audit time="2023-03-03 21:47:05" stat="A">
<upd_uid>jwb</upd_uid>
<upd_name>Jim Breen</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_detl>庇 - eaves.
Trimming.</upd_detl>
<upd_diff>@@ -16 +16 @@
-<gloss g_type="lit">to lend out the leaves but have the whole house taken from one</gloss>
+<gloss g_type="lit">to lend out the eaves but have one's whole house taken</gloss></upd_diff>
</audit>
<audit time="2023-03-04 21:57:01" stat="A" unap="true">
<upd_uid>robin1354</upd_uid>
<upd_name>Robin Scott</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_detl>yard/ell -> mile</upd_detl>
<upd_refs>gg5, prog
庇を貸して 1,626
ひさしを貸して 666
母屋を取られ 908
母屋をとられ 178</upd_refs>
<upd_diff>@@ -5,0 +6,12 @@
+</k_ele>
+<k_ele>
+<keb>ひさしを貸して母屋を取られる</keb>
+<ke_inf>&sK;</ke_inf>
+</k_ele>
+<k_ele>
+<keb>庇を貸して母屋をとられる</keb>
+<ke_inf>&sK;</ke_inf>
+</k_ele>
+<k_ele>
+<keb>ひさしを貸して母屋をとられる</keb>
+<ke_inf>&sK;</ke_inf>
@@ -14,2 +26,2 @@
-<gloss>give him an inch and he'll take an ell</gloss>
-<gloss>give him an inch and he'll take a yard</gloss>
+<gloss>to have one's kindness taken advantage of</gloss>
+<gloss>give him an inch and he'll take a mile</gloss></upd_diff>
</audit>
<audit time="2023-03-05 20:01:38" stat="A">
<upd_uid>jwb</upd_uid>
<upd_name>Jim Breen</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
</audit>
</info>
</entry>