atama o kakaeru lit. ‘to hold one’s head in one’s arms’
Japanese idiom, everyday. To be stuck and unable to work something out.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 頭を抱える
?
Everyday Japanese, also very common in news writing: a city 頭を抱えている over its garbage problem, a coach over injuries. It’s usually in the ている form for an ongoing headache, with に marking the problem (“〜に頭を抱える”). You can use it about yourself in a joking way when a puzzle beats you.
Also said 頭を抱え込む
頭を抱える
in real sentences
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その問題の処理に彼は頭を抱え込んでいる。
Sono mondai no shori ni kare wa atama o kakaekonde iru.
He’s racking his brains about how to deal with the matter.
Tatoeba, sentence by bunbuku, translation by CS, CC BY 2.0 FR
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自治体はゴミ処理問題に頭を抱えている。
Jichitai wa gomi shori mondai ni atama o kakaete iru.
The municipal government is at their wits’ end concerning the garbage problem.
Tatoeba, sentence by bunbuku, translation by WestofEden, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 頭を抱える
come from?
It’s the gesture itself: both hands clamped to your head because you don’t know what to do. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (via Kotobank) defines it exactly that way, and its earliest example is from Saitō Ryokuu’s story Kado jamisen (1895). There’s no origin legend behind it.
Mistakes learners make with 頭を抱える
Treating it as a headache. 頭が痛い (my head hurts) can also mean a problem is troubling, but 頭を抱える is the gesture of being stumped, and nobody’s head actually hurts.
Other Japanese idioms like 頭を抱える
Spot a mistake in 頭を抱える
?
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