me no tama ga tobideru hodo takai lit. ‘so expensive your eyeballs pop out’
Japanese idiom, casual. To cost a huge amount of money.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 目の玉が飛び出るほど高い
?
Casual and lively, used in conversation, shop gossip and magazine price tags. The fixed core is 目の玉が飛び出る (your eyeballs pop out), and ほど高い or 値段 (price) tells you it’s about money; 目玉 and 目 are common shorter versions. Past tense goes on 高い: “目の玉が飛び出るほど高かった”.
Also said 目玉が飛び出るほど高い, 目が飛び出るほど高い, 目の玉が飛び出るような値段
目の玉が飛び出るほど高い
in real sentences
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彼女が欲しいって言ってたコート、目の玉が飛び出るほど高かったんだ。
Kanojo ga hoshii tte itteta kōto, me no tama ga tobideru hodo takakatta n da.
The coat she said she wanted was extremely expensive.
Tatoeba, sentence by bunbuku, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 目の玉が飛び出るほど高い
come from?
Nobody has recorded where it started, and the dictionaries on Kotobank give no early citation. Daijisen and the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten list it under 目玉が飛び出る, a picture of eyes opening so wide in shock that they seem to leave their sockets; Daijisen’s example is “飛び出るほど高い”, and the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten names shock at a high price as one of its uses. It shares the eyes with French “coûter les yeux de la tête”, but in Japanese the eyes are popping in shock rather than being paid away.
Mistakes learners make with 目の玉が飛び出るほど高い
Using 目の玉が飛び出る on its own and expecting it to mean expensive. By itself it’s any jaw-dropping shock (the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten mentions being scolded harshly), so you need ほど高い or a word like 値段 to make it about price. Don’t confuse it with 大目玉を食らう either, which means getting a big telling-off.
Other Japanese idioms like 目の玉が飛び出るほど高い
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