Japanese term
United Kingdom
East Asian Expertise
Native in: English 
Works in: Japanese to English, Chinese to English, English
タコ
| 2 +5 | dumb, stupid, fool, etc |
Yuichi Saito
|
| 3 +1 | bald head |
Yuki Okada
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| 1 | airhead |
cinefil
|
Non-PRO (1): humbird
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Proposed translations
dumb, stupid, fool, etc
| agree |
toshism
: bonehead, idiot, often used in comedies
30 mins
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| agree |
Aogara
: Bonehead or idiot sounds best suited. Ho-san, you should enter it as your answer. Dumb, stupid etc. are also fine.
48 mins
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| agree |
KathyT
: How about 'dork'? I've definitely heard both タコ and タコベ used in this way - perhaps it's regional?
6 hrs
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| agree |
AniseK
9 hrs
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| agree |
Troy Fowler
: Yep. This is right. As Okada-san pointed out, it can also mean "baldy" (for a bald head), but using it to mean simply "dumb-ass" or "idiot" is much more common. Oh-yeah, タコ can also mean "callus" or a bump of hard skin from using that area too much.
9 hrs
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Canada
Engineering translator
Native in: Japanese
Works in: English to Japanese, Japanese to English
bald head
There are apparently other intrepretations. Have fun searching on the Internet probably with keywords like タコ 悪口
http://okwave.jp/qa2914471.html
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Note added at 3 hrs (2008-09-22 20:27:01 GMT)
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In that case, your "translation' can't be bald head! I guess it is used towards a kid just as a genreal-purpose insult regardless of the word origin. Tako was hardly used around me when I was a kid - I guess everyone had lots of hair!
| I've seen it in reference to baldness before too. But this time, it's referring to a kid with a full head of hair. Thanks for replying! |
| agree |
humbird
: Yes, usually used as "Tako-bouzu", means a buddist priest whose head is shaved. Thus bold-headed person. Nonetheless, this is hardly a word of reverence.
3 hrs
|
airhead
You can see good examples of use in the movie series 男はつらいよ
Reference comments
http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q131...
仰せのとおりあの海洋生物のタコらしいです。
以下参考ＵＲＬより抜粋
江戸時代の徳川将軍家の家臣団には階級があり、
将軍に謁見できる家柄の直参旗本は「御目見栄」、それがかなわぬ下級の御家人を「御目見栄以下」または「以下」と呼んでいたそうです。
そこで家臣の子供どうしで喧嘩になると、上級武士の子供は下級武士の子供に「やーい、以下！以下！」と悪口を言いたてたそうです。
その差別的言辞の倫理的評価はともかく、下級武士の子供は「イカ！」と言われたんだから「タコ！」と言い返すほかはない。それが悪口「タコ」の語源であるらしいです。
Ika (squid) vs Tako (octopus), hah!?
It sure interesting to know such ancient expression popped out in this ciber space age of (quite possibly) manga origin!
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Note added at 12 hrs (2008-09-23 05:41:16 GMT)
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If this answer stands, I would say タコ is surely derogatory and insulting, but not necessarily one of those 馬鹿、間抜け、とんま、うすら、あかんたれ、アホ、どあほ、いかれぽんちfamily (all in the variety of idiot, supido, blockhead type) .
This makes all answers given so far wrong.
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Note added at 12 hrs (2008-09-23 05:43:56 GMT)
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On the other hand, everything is possible in this Manga world we are living.
Discussion