Nonke or Futsu

We are always on the lookout for useful words. One of the best places to look for delightful new words is in the Wortschatz - the word-treasure, i.e. vocabulary - of other languages.

Today we learned of NONKE (ノンケ) which is the Japanese slang term for heterosexual. It does not mean non-gay (although it sounds as if it did). The "non" means non (yes, they DID borrow that bit) - but the "ke" means "persuasion". So it literally means, "not of the persuasion". Which is rather poetic.

The other term our Japanese brothers and sisters use to refer to Them is FUTSU (普通). Which means simply "normal". How boring, yes? But think of how it sounds in English? Who could resist the opportunity to refer to certain Professional Heterosexists as "a flustered flock of fussy futsus"...? Or perhaps, more simply, as "a clutch of futsu-fetishists"...?