とんでもない

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Japanese

Etymology

Many sources consider this to be a shift from でもない (to de mo nai, literally “that is not even the way”, idiomatically “extraordinary, unexpected, unreasonable”) or でもない (to de mo nai, literally “that's not even ”, where the to here is the quotative particle to in reference to whatever was just said previously).

However, citations for tondemonai precede those for todemonai by several decades (tondemonai cited to 1586–99, todemonai to 1638), pointing instead to tondemonai as the original form, and to de mo nai as a later development.

An analysis of the earliest texts indicates that this expression arose first in eastern Japanese dialects. Eastern dialects have a tendency to pre-nasalize voiced consonants, which would suggest that the initial tonde may indeed be to de (from either noun (to, way) or particle (to, quotative)).

While the ない (-nai) ending does appear to be 無い (nai, not; is not), there are no historical attestations of とんでも (tondemo) used separately. The term トンデモ (tondemo, outrageous, unexpected) is derived from とんでもない (tondemonai) only in relatively modern usage, such as in the now-dated expression とんでもハップン (tondemo happun) cited to 1950.

Despite surface similarities, the tonde here is almost certainly not derived from とんだ (tonda, extraordinary, unexpected).

Pronunciation

  • Tokyo pitch accent of inflected forms of 「とんでもない
Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary
Stem forms
Continuative (連用形) とんでもなく んでもな
Terminal (終止形) とんでもない んでもな
Attributive (連体形) とんでもない んでもな
Key constructions
Informal negative とんでもなくない んでもなくない
Informal past とんでもなかった んでもなかった
Informal negative past とんでもなくなかった んでもなくなかった
Formal とんでもないです んでもないです
Conjunctive とんでもなくて んでもなくて
Conditional とんでもなければ んでもなければ

Adjective

とんでもない (tondemonai-i (adverbial とんでもなく (tondemonaku))

  1. unbelievable, unreasonable, extraordinary, completely unexpected, outrageous, preposterous
    Synonyms: 途方もない (tohō mo nai), 思いがけない (omoigakenai), 意外 (igai), とんだ (tonda), 以ての外 (motte no hoka), 途轍もない (totetsu mo nai)
    (おれ)とんでもないことしてしまった
    Ore wa tondemonai koto o shite shimatta.
    I did something totally outrageous.
  2. not at all
    ありがとうございます。」「いやいやとんでもないです。」
    “Arigatō gozaimasu.”“Iya iya, tondemonai desu.”
    "Thank you." "No no, not at all."

Usage notes

In older texts, this was treated as a single integral term, with the ない (-nai) ending treated as inseparable. This was used in 丁寧語 (teineigo, the polite register) in constructions such as とんでもないことです (tondemonai koto desu) or とんでもないことございます (tondemonai koto de gozaimasu).

In modern usage, the ない (-nai) ending is treated as separable, and polite constructions may replace the ない (-nai) ending with the negative form of the copular verb instead, such as in とんでもありません (tondemo arimasen) or とんでもございません (tondemo gozaimasen).

Inflection

Derived terms

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. 2.0 2.1 Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. 3.0 3.1 とんでもない”, in デジタル大辞泉 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, updated roughly every four months
  4. 4.0 4.1 とんでもない, in 日本辞典 (Nihon Jiten, Japan Dictionary) (in Japanese)
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 とんでもない, in 語源由来辞典 (Gogen Yurai Jiten, Etymology Derivation Dictionary) (in Japanese)
  6. ^ とでもない”, in デジタル大辞泉 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, updated roughly every four months
  7. 7.0 7.1 とんでもない”, in 日本国語大辞典 (in Japanese), concise edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2006
  8. ^ とんでもハップン”, in 日本国語大辞典 (in Japanese), concise edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2006
  9. ^ とんでもハップン”, in デジタル大辞泉 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, updated roughly every four months
  10. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN