English translation:
very, quite, considerably
Structure
なかなか + Adjective
なかなか + の + Noun
Both of the reference readings mention that なかなか implies that it is better than expected. Can you add that nuance note below the structure section, assuming you agree with it?
And if that nuance does exist, can なかなか ever be taken negatively by the listener because it might imply that you thought something wouldn’t be good before trying it?
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@seanblue That is a great question! Like English, it all depends on how it is worded. If someone makes you dinner and you say 「んまー、なかなか美味しいんちゃう?」, the cook would not be too pleased. On the other hand, if you say something like: 「おお！これなかなか美味しいな！」, then you would get some brownie points from the chef.
Side note: なかなか doesn’t imply that whatever follows it is better than expected, but more than expected. So, saying 試験がなかなか難しかった, would imply that the test was considerably more difficult than you might have expected. You will find なかなか being used in negative contexts quite often. This is because なかなか can be used with negative verbs, while words that are often interchangeable in positive contexts, like 結構 and かなり, cannot. Cheers!
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The reference to the AIAIJ resource only describes the negative use of the grammar (なかなか~ない) meaning ‘not easily’ so I think it should be moved here instead.
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The “fun fact” section describes this word as having a nuance of “bulls-eye example” or “middle example” originally deriving from the kanji 中, meaning “middle”:
Coming from the kanji 中, meaning ‘middle’, なかなか highlights that something is ‘a prime example of (A)’, or ‘far more (A) than expected’. If we imagine a dartboard, where the whole board shows the intensity level of a specific word, and なかなか represents the bullseye, this is basically the nuance. ‘(A) is the middle (bullseye) example of (B)’.
I wasn’t able to find this nuance in my dictionary (旺文社国語辞典 第十一版) however and the etymology seems to be different:
🈩 （副）
｟中心義－かなりの程度に事が進んでいる意を表す｠
① ずいぶん。かなり。相当に。「―上手だ」
② 容易には。とうてい。「―うまくできない」
③ ｟古｠なまじっか。
④ ｟古｠かえって。むしろ。
🈔 （形動ナリ）｟古｠
① 中途はんぱなさま。どっちつかずだ。
② なまじ…しても無益だ。ばからしい。
🈪 （感）｟古｠
謡曲・狂言などで、相手の言葉を肯定する語。はい。いかにも。そのとおり。
㊀②はあとに打ち消しの語を伴う。
【変遷】古語「なかなか」は「中中」の意。上でもなく下でもなく、どっちつかずの中途半端な状態、あるいはその状態に対する不満や不安な感じを表した。同じ語を重ねた語は、それが目立っていることを表すので、上の段階に達していないことを強く意識した語といえる。古くは、中途半端な状態が悪い意味にとらえられたが、現代語では㊀①のように、よい意味でも用いられるようになった。
So the original meaning was something like “neither (x) nor (y)” (where x and y are opposites), indicating a middle (中) degree, and it developed its current meaning by semantic shift over time. Is there a source for the alternative “prime/middle example” nuance/etymology that is mentioned in the grammar explanation?
As a side note, I don’t really understand the dartboard analogy — it’s not clear to me what a bulls-eye would represent in terms of an intensity level. It seems like referring to a linear scale (e.g. a ruler) would make more sense here.
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Hi there, and thanks for getting in touch!
Sorry for the confusion with the fun fact. Our goal was just to mention that it comes from the kanji 中, being that it is frequently written in hiragana. We try not to include any etymological information in the beginner level writeups.
I can see how the way it was written would make it seem like we were talking about the “far more (A) than expected” section in a way that made them seem related to the previous “coming from …” clause.
As the primary nuance that this particular point expresses is high intensity “ずいぶん。かなり。相当に。「―上手だ」” (either positive or negative), that is why the ‘middle’ example was given (with the bulls-eye indicating the highest level of intensity). As a ruler doesn’t imply any kind of ‘middle’, that is why we didn’t originally go with that type of explanation. Upon reflection though, we can definitely see how the dart-board analogy may also be a bit confusing, so will change it a spectrum analogy that is a bit clearer. We’ll also change the ‘prime-example’ to ‘considerably/extremely’, so the focus is more in intensity. That was just poor word choice on our part.
We will also split out the “coming from …” kanji info into it’s own fun fact to prevent any confusion.
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