Today I am going to introduce two phrases that express anger in Japanese.
堪忍袋の緒が切れる
kannin bukuro no o ga kireru
Meaning
This phrase means: my patience has run out ・my patience has run thin・I’m all out of patience
Usage
This phrase is more artistic, and is not commonly used in everyday life. We see it more-so in books rather than hear it while out and about.
This phrase can be used to express when someone is very annoyed, and they’re just about to snap. – it’s almost like a warning! as in, “if you don’t stop doing whatever you’re doing, i’m going to snap.”
Breakdown!
I’m going to break down the phrase, and explain each section.
堪忍 かん・にん Kannin:
Patience
袋 ぶくろ Bukuro:
bag, sack, pouch
堪忍袋 Kannin bukuro:
The bag holding one’s patience
怒り心頭に発する
ikari shintou ni ha suru
Meaning
This phrase means: “To fly off the handle” ・for anger to bubble over・for anger to spill over
Japanese people love to shorten words and phrases!
Japanese is often shortened as a form of convenience, and this phrase is one such example! While the full phrase is:
怒り心頭に発する
it is often written as:
怒り心頭
Usage
This phrase is also much more commonly used in writing, rather than in speech. When compared to the above phrase, this one has more of an anger connotation rather than an irritated one.
We can use then when we’re describing someone who was very rude to us, or when we feel like we were slighted.
Breakdown!
怒り いかり ikari anger(n)
心頭 しんとう shintou heart (spirit, not physical organ)
に ni a particle indicating direction
発する はっする hassuru to appear
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