お手上げ

Japanese
Kanji in this term
手 上
て
Grade: 1		 あ(げ)
Grade: 1

Alternative forms

Etymology

Compound of 御 (o, honorific prefix) +‎ 手 (te, “hand, hands”) +‎ 上げ (age, “raising”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 上げる ageru “to raise something”).[1][2]

Pronunciation

Noun

お手上げ (hiragana おてあげ, rōmaji oteage)

  1. throwing up one's hands: giving up, quitting
    こんなに遅 (おそ)くてはもうお手 (て)上 (あ)げだ。
    Konna ni osokute wa mō oteage da.
    Running this late, it's to the point where we're just giving up.

Usage notes

This term is used as a noun in Japanese. Note that recombining the constituent parts of this phrase to produce the verb phrase 手を上げる (te o ageru) can produce a different meaning, depending on context: “to raise one's hand [against someone, as if to strike]”.

Synonyms

References
  1. 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
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