ecchi
/ˈɛ.tʃiː/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.42 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of animation, erotic, lascivious, lewd, naughty, sexy, suggestive.
noun
A genre, especially of anime and manga, featuring playful, tongue-in-cheek usage of sexualized scenes and situations such as double entendre or flirtation, while remaining non-pornographic. Often used to differentiate from hentai which features overt sexual themes.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The manga fan was disturbingly proud of his extensive ecchi collection."
- "There was a moment of ecchi for comic relief in the otherwise serious story."
Etymology
From Japanese エッチ (etchi, “dirty; perverted”), which is derived from English aitch (“name of the letter ⟨H⟩”), which is an initialism of the romaji of Japanese 変(へん)態(たい) (hentai, “pervert”). エッチ (etchi) is not a genre in Japanese; this is a development in English (pseudo-Japonism), similar to that of hentai from 変(へん)態(たい) (hentai, “pervert”) above.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɛ.tʃiː/
- British English: /ˈɛ.tʃi/