JMdictDB - Entries

jmdict 1243880 Active (id: 2275865)
九分九厘
【くぶくりん】

1.	[adv] [yoji] ▶ almost certainly ▶ in all probability ▶ ten to one ▶ in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred
2.	[n] [yoji] 《usu. as 〜まで》 ▶ near-completeness ▶ near-perfection ▶ ninety-nine percent (finished, etc.)

History:

9.	A 2023-08-30 04:47:13 Jim Breen <...address hidden...>
8.	A* 2023-08-30 01:31:52 Robin Scott <...address hidden...>
	Refs:	daijs, meikyo, smk, gg5
	Comments:	There are two senses but the JEs only have the first.
	Diff:	@@ -11 +10,0 @@ -<pos>&adj-no;</pos> @@ -14,2 +12,0 @@ -<gloss>ten to one</gloss> -<gloss>nine cases out of ten</gloss> @@ -17,0 +15,10 @@ +<gloss>ten to one</gloss> +<gloss>in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred</gloss> +</sense> +<sense> +<pos>&n;</pos> +<misc>&yoji;</misc> +<s_inf>usu. as 〜まで</s_inf> +<gloss>near-completeness</gloss> +<gloss>near-perfection</gloss> +<gloss>ninety-nine percent (finished, etc.)</gloss>
7.	A 2023-08-29 21:04:01 Jim Breen <...address hidden...>
	Comments:	I thought I'd removed it.
6.	A* 2023-08-29 18:40:37 Stephen Kraus <...address hidden...>
	Comments:	I don't think we usually add cross references for synonyms like this
	Diff:	@@ -13 +12,0 @@ -<xref type="see" seq="1522050">殆ど・ほとんど・1</xref>
5.	A 2023-08-29 06:15:05 Jim Breen <...address hidden...>
	Refs:	GG5: ten to one; in nine cases out of ten; in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred; in all probability. 中辞典: almost certainly; in all probability; ten to one ルミナス: (ほとんど常に) in nine cases out of ten; (きっと) ten to one, in all probability.
	Comments:	The entry was simple, clear and accurate. I really think the proposed change, with parenthesised bits and explanations, made it rather messier, I don't think the xref is needed.
	Diff:	@@ -15,3 +15,4 @@ -<gloss>almost perfect (e.g. score)</gloss> -<gloss>almost completely (e.g. successful, flawless)</gloss> -<gloss g_type="expl">originally 九分九厘 out of 十分, or 99%. oft. taken as ほとんど instead</gloss> +<gloss>ten to one</gloss> +<gloss>nine cases out of ten</gloss> +<gloss>almost certainly</gloss> +<gloss>in all probability</gloss>
(show/hide 4 older log entries)
4.	A* 2023-08-28 19:38:04 Brian Krznarich <...address hidden...>
	Refs:	A nice Japanese school teacher explains to Japanese school children why foreigners mess this up, and why it is 99%, not 9.9% or any other such silliness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUSQ0Ksg1h4 jitenon disagrees with daijs(or at least, makes no claim to 90%): https://yoji.jitenon.jp/yojib/676.html ほとんど完璧なもの。ほぼ間違いないこと。十分のうちの九分九厘という意味から。 https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q10175984110 〇九分九厘は99％です。現在では九割九分九厘の言い方がされるので、混乱した状態になっているのですが。「九分九厘間違いない」って言う時の「九分九厘」って、 99%ですか？ 99.9%ですか？ 9.9%ですか？ https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q11171314396 99％です。「九分九厘」って9.9％ですよね？ https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1123739751 正解は９９％。現代の”１５．３％”は、１割５分３厘と表現されるところまでは同じですが、これを当時は、”０．１５３”ではなく、”１．５３割”と言う感覚で受け止めていた、と考えれば、感覚的に理解出来ると思います。 full daijs definition 《十分に一厘だけ足りない意から》１ほとんど完全に近いこと。九分どおり。「九分九厘まで出来ている」２（副詞的に）そうなることがほぼ確実であるさま。ほとんど。九分どおり。「当選は九分九厘まちがいない」
	Comments:	The previous glosses make it seem like 9分9厘 somehow equates to precisely 9/10th or 1/10th. This is not at all the case. The expression 九分九厘 literally means 99%. It was originally interpreted as the fraction of 1割 = 十分 = "the whole". In other words, 99 parts of 100. (see endless refs). daijs even explains: 《十分に一厘だけ足りない意から》 (1 rin missing of 100 rin (10 bun = 100 rin)) before going on to say: ほとんど. 九分どおり (90%) We don't define ほとんど as 90% (which seems to be how daijs gets the number). If we want to add an [expl] to ほとんど to say "about 90%", I guess I'd be ok with that. 【ほとんど、大部分、大半】は何％？ https://99bako.com/1832.html 【ほとんど】９０％ Looking at collocations, jitenon has it correct. This means "hotondo" most specifically in the sense of "score" or "success". (ほとんど完璧なもの。ほぼ間違いないこと). ngrams: 九分九厘成功 150 九分九厘大丈夫 133 九分九厘間違いない 124 etc. sankoku says simply ほどんど(全体に近いこと)。 There is a percentage based interpretation. 割 = 10%, 分 = 1%, 厘 = 0.1%, but in that case you get 9.9%. But you have to contort yourself to think this somehow means "90%". This is asked frequently and confuses some natives (and is the source for the youtube schoolteacher video).
	Diff:	@@ -11 +11 @@ -<pos>&n;</pos> +<pos>&adj-no;</pos> @@ -12,0 +13 @@ +<xref type="see" seq="1522050">殆ど・ほとんど・1</xref> @@ -14,2 +15,3 @@ -<gloss>ten to one</gloss> -<gloss>nine cases out of ten</gloss> +<gloss>almost perfect (e.g. score)</gloss> +<gloss>almost completely (e.g. successful, flawless)</gloss> +<gloss g_type="expl">originally 九分九厘 out of 十分, or 99%. oft. taken as ほとんど instead</gloss>
3.	A 2021-03-31 04:33:13 Jim Breen <...address hidden...>
	Comments:	Bulk update n-adv to n,adv -- via bulkupd.py --
	Diff:	@@ -11 +11,2 @@ -<pos>&n-adv;</pos> +<pos>&n;</pos> +<pos>&adv;</pos>
2.	A 2021-03-10 00:30:30 Jim Breen <...address hidden...>
	Comments:	Bulk update: Removal of n-t POS -- via bulkupd.py --
	Diff:	@@ -12 +11,0 @@ -<pos>&n-t;</pos>
1.	A 2014-08-25 01:32:34 Jim Breen <...address hidden...>
	Refs:	Kanji Haitani list
	Comments:	Adding yoji tagAdding yoji tag -- via bulkupd.py --
	Diff:	@@ -12,0 +13 @@ +<misc>&yoji;</misc>

View entry in alternate formats: jel | edict | jmdict xml | jmnedict xml | jmdictdb xml

Search \| Advanced Search \| New Entry \| Submissions \| Help	wsgi/DB=jmdict

If you have questions about, problems using, or suggestions for improving this page, please send email to jimbreen@gmail.com.
JMdictDB is an open-source Postgresql database and Python API for managing Japanese dictionary data developed by Stuart McGraw. More information at http://edrdg.org/~smg/. Please report software problems at https://gitlab.com/yamagoya/jmdictdb/issues or email to jmdictdb@mtneva.com.

JMdictDB - Japanese Dictionary Database

Entries