iki o hikitoru lit. ‘to take back your breath’
Japanese idiom, polite. To die (said in a casual, joking way).
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 息を引き取る
?
Calm and respectful, the phrase you hear from doctors, on the news and in families talking about a peaceful death. It’s mostly in the past tense and often comes with 安らかに (peacefully) or, as in Digital Daijisen’s example, 眠るように (as if falling asleep): “眠るように息を引き取った”.
息を引き取る
in real sentences
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彼女は昨夜安らかに息を引き取った。
Kanojo wa sakuya yasuraka ni iki o hikitotta.
She passed away peacefully last night.
Tatoeba, sentence by arnab, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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トムのお母さんは、先週息を引き取りました。
Tomu no okāsan wa, senshū iki o hikitorimashita.
Tom’s mother passed away last week.
Tatoeba, sentence by small_snow, translation by sharptoothed, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 息を引き取る
come from?
Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (via Kotobank) quotes it from Kōshoku seisuiki (1688), a story collection by Ihara Saikaku, in a line about holding the funeral as soon as the breath is drawn in. Word for word, 引き取る means to take back or withdraw, so the breath goes in and stays there; the dictionaries simply define it as breathing stopping. English Wiktionary compares it with “draw one’s last breath”.
Mistakes learners make with 息を引き取る
Using it as a jokey “kick the bucket” for a dead phone or car. For gadgets, casual Japanese says 壊れた (it broke) or 死んだ (it died), and saves 息を引き取る for a person’s last breath.
Other Japanese idioms like 息を引き取る
Spot a mistake in 息を引き取る
?
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