I’m bemused/amused to see this once-obscure (to non-speakers of Japanese) term now getting verbed in an Apple ad that’s racked up nearly 20 million views since Friday. (“This is the strangest life I’ve ever known…”)
Perhaps the death knell of the word’s real utility. Bokeh has already been synonymized with soft focus (including synthetic softness), instead of referring to the qualities of out-of-focus areas created by optics.
Language evolution is often annoying. People misheard “homing in” and didn’t know the origin of the term. Now we have “honing in”.
It’s always been a verb! ‘Bokeru’ – to be blurry or out of focus. It’s also part of the Japanese word for ‘jet lag’ , ‘jisa-boke’, literally ‘time-lag blurriness’.
Perhaps the death knell of the word’s real utility. Bokeh has already been synonymized with soft focus (including synthetic softness), instead of referring to the qualities of out-of-focus areas created by optics.
Language evolution is often annoying. People misheard “homing in” and didn’t know the origin of the term. Now we have “honing in”.
“Waiting for the Sun” would have been a good song to use for that ad too!
https://youtu.be/f6ku2J6eT3I?t=156
It’s always been a verb! ‘Bokeru’ – to be blurry or out of focus. It’s also part of the Japanese word for ‘jet lag’ , ‘jisa-boke’, literally ‘time-lag blurriness’.