爽

refreshing

Kanji 2053

Learn to mention lactic acid bacteria in ads for alcohol as a way of making a drink sound refreshing! Of course, as many sample sentences and ads in this essay reflect, the Japanese also refer to sleep, cooling drinks, autumn weather, breezes, certain pills, shampoo, flowers, and (surprisingly) music as refreshing. Oh, and cigarettes, coffee, and (did I mention?) bacteria!

Revision history:

Feb. 22, 2022: 

• p. 2, Etymology Box: Added a Henshall etymology. To create room for it, I moved a good bit of text out of the box and into the main text on the same page in a new section called “What Else 爽 Has Meant.”
• p. 18: Added a link to the Kanshudo games.

Jan. 18, 2019: Originally published.