Shivering, trembling and dizziness – Japanese mimetics
Eight words for shaking and for the room spinning: ぶるぶる, ぞくぞく, くらくら – and what makes each one tremble.
くらくら · to feel dizzy
The room spins.
Voiceless く is lighter: your head sways, not the furniture. くらくら names the sensation in the head itself — the room turns, everything goes dark; ふらふら names something else: that nothing is settled, neither the step nor the thought. Both can end with you crouching down, so failing to stay on your feet settles nothing here — what settles it is whether the world spins or your head fogs over. ぐるぐる, by contrast, describes a thing that really turns round, not the person looking.
Examples
- 健康診断の採血のあと、目の前が真っ暗になって天井が回り、その場にしゃがみ込むほどくらくらした。After the blood draw at my check-up everything went black, the ceiling turned, and my head swam so badly that I crouched down where I stood.
- サウナに長く入りすぎて、天井が回るようにくらくらし、立っていられずしゃがみ込んだ。I stayed in the sauna too long; my head is spinning as if the ceiling were turning, and I had to crouch because I could not stay on my feet.
ぐらぐら · to wobble
An unsteady thing: a table, a tooth, a shelf.
Voiced ぐ is heavier and bigger — an object wobbles, not a feeling. What separates the neighbours is what has happened to the fixing: ぐらぐら wobbles because its mounting has given way and the thing is about to go over; がたがた knocks and rattles because there is play between the parts; ゆらゆら sways calmly, with nothing at stake.
Examples
- ねじが緩んだ眼鏡のつるが、音もなく片側へ傾いて揺れ、ぐらぐらして掛けていられない。A screw in my glasses has worked loose: the temple tips silently to one side and wobbles too much to wear them.
- 抜けかけの乳歯が、指で押すと片側へ傾き、落ち着かないほどぐらぐらと動く。The loose milk tooth already gives: press it with a finger and it tips to one side, wobbling too much to ignore.
びりびり · to tingle sharply
Electricity through the body; also: tearing.
Voiced び is strong and sudden — it does not burn, it jolts. What separates it from じんじん is time: びりびり passes through like a discharge and is gone, while じんじん stays long after the cause has stopped.
Examples
- 肘をぶつけて、電気が走ったように腕がびりびりした。I banged my elbow and a jolt like electricity shot through my arm.
- ドアノブに触れた瞬間、指先にびりびりと静電気が走った。The moment I touched the doorknob, static electricity shot through my fingertips.
ぶるぶる · to tremble in small shivers
Shaking from cold or from fear.
The 濁点 in ぶ makes the trembling involuntary — from cold or from fear, and impossible to stop. Plain ふるふる is light and faint: it is how you shake your head to say no (ふるふると首を振る), not how you shiver in the cold. The four neighbours each leave along a different axis: がくがく shakes coarsely, at the whole joint, until the knees give, while ぶるぶる trembles finely just under the skin; ぞくぞく does not tremble at all, it runs down the back as a chill; びくびく stays inside, being a person's fear rather than a movement of the body; ぷるぷる quivers softly and pleasantly, and is said of a thing, not of someone cold.
Examples
- 上着を忘れ、歯の根が合わないほどの寒さで、はたから見ても分かるくらい体が小刻みにぶるぶると震える。I forgot my jacket and the cold sets my teeth chattering; my whole body shivers in small tremors plain enough for anyone to see.
- 恐怖で歯の根が合わず、震えが指先まで及んで、はたから見ても分かるくらい小刻みにぶるぶるしている。Fear sets my teeth chattering; the tremor reaches my fingertips and anyone can see it.
がくがく · to shake at the joints
Knees that shake and give way.
The amplitude sits in が, not in the 濁点 as such — ぶるぶる carries one too and still shakes finely. Open が lets the whole joint go; closed ぶ keeps the shaking at the skin. がたがた shakes just as coarsely, but a thing — a window, a cart, a rickety table — and it rattles while it does; がくがく is about the joints of a living body.
Examples
- 長い下り坂を歩いたあと、膝が笑うほど大きくがくがくと震えた。After the long walk down the slope my knees shook so hard they almost gave way.
- 面接の順番を待つうちに、膝が言うことを聞かず、大きくがくがくしてきた。As I waited my turn for the interview, my knees stopped obeying me and my legs began to shake.
じんじん · to tingle and throb
Numbness that pulses and burns.
The 濁点 in じ makes the sensation deep and diffuse. Plain しんしん drifted off to weather and silence. What separates it from びりびり is time: びりびり jolts once and is gone, while じんじん stays long after the cause. What separates it from ずきずき is the kind of sensation: ずきずき is pain itself, じんじん is numbness that happens to pulse.
Examples
- 正座を崩したあと、痛いほどのしびれで足が脈打つようにじんじんと痛む。When I came out of the formal kneeling position my legs went numb and now they throb painfully.
- 氷水から出した指先が、痛いほどのしびれで脈打つようにじんじんと熱を持った。My fingertips, taken out of the ice water, went numb to the point of pain and began to throb with heat.
ぞくぞく · to shiver down the spine
A chill down the back: fever or horror.
There is no plain そくそく in this sense, so the 濁点 settles nothing here — and neither does the shiver itself: ぞくぞく can be pleasant (楽しみでぞくぞくする). This card teaches the other one, from cold and from horror. A chill runs, it does not shake: ぶるぶる is a visible trembling of the body, while ぞくぞく goes down the back and need not show on you at all. ぞっと passes through once and is over at once; ぞくぞく keeps coming back in waves.
Examples
- 風邪の引き始めか、さっきから何度も寒気が背筋を走ってぞくぞくする。I think I am coming down with a cold; for a while now chills have been running down my spine again and again.
- 怪談を聞いてから、思い出すたびに、うなじの毛が逆立つような寒気がぞくぞくと背筋を走る。Ever since I heard that ghost story, every time it comes back to me a chill runs down my spine and makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
ひくひく · to twitch faintly
An eyelid or the corner of a mouth twitching on its own.
Voiceless ひ keeps the movement microscopic and neutral. The 濁点 form びくびく would turn a muscle twitch into a person's fear.
Examples
- 寝不足のせいか、まぶたが同じリズムで小さく震えてひくひくする。From lack of sleep, perhaps, my eyelid keeps twitching faintly in the same rhythm.
- 笑いをこらえて、口の端が同じリズムで小さくひくひくと震えた。As I held back a laugh, the corner of my mouth twitched faintly in the same rhythm.
Where this comes from
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