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6.12. What does boke mean?

The word "boke", pronounced "bok-ay", and usually written ぼけ or ボケ, has a number of different meanings. It can mean stupid, unaware, or clueless. (See 8.5. What are some Japanese insults and swear-words? for more.)

This word is also used in photography for "out of focus", and has come into English as "bokeh", with an additional "h" to show the pronunciation. (See 5.5. What English words come from Japanese? for more words which have come from Japanese to English.)

In double-act comedy, the "straight man" is called tsukkomi (ツッコミ) and the "funny man" is called boke.

The Japanese also use boke to mean "senility", and in such compound words as jisaboke (時差ぼけ), "time-lag boke", meaning "jet lag", heiwa-boke (平和ボケ), "peace boke", meaning a state of complacency induced by an excess of peace, and tennen-boke (天然ぼけ), "natural boke", meaning "airhead".

Boke is also the name of a plant known in English as the Japanese quince or flowering quince.

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