ojisan

In Japanese, ojisan おじさん means "uncle," but sometimes refers to an older man.

Not to be confused with ojiisan おじいさん, or ojīsan with a macron, which mean "grandfather" instead.

• Kanji
• Variants
• vs. 伯父
• Toward Older Men
• Ojisan Fish

Kanji

The word ojisan can be written with kanji in multiple ways, depending on the meaning of the word:

• ojisan
  伯父さん
  Uncle, who is your parent's older brother. In other words, the oniisan of your otousan or okaasan.
• ojisan
  叔父さん
  Uncle, who is your parent's younger brother. In other words, the otouto of your otousan or okaasan.
• ojisan
  小父さん
  Elder man.

Variants

With family words in o__san お〇〇さん pattern, the o~ お～ prefix can be removed, and the honorific suffix can be changed between ~san ～さん, ~chan ～ちゃん, and ~sama ～さま.

	o~ Default.	∅ Relaxed.
~sama Respectful. Distant. Formal.	ojisama おじさま 伯父様 叔父様 小父様	jisama じさま
~san Default.	ojisan おじさん 伯父さん 叔父さん 小父さん	jisan じさん
~chan Chummier. Diminutive.	ojichan おじちゃん 伯父ちゃん 叔父ちゃん 小父ちゃん	jichan じちゃん
∅ Relaxed.	oji おじ 伯父 叔父 小父	ji じ

The words ossan おっさん, occhan おっちゃん, are other variants of ojisan.

vs. 伯父

The difference between ojisan and oji 伯父 (叔父) is that oji doesn't have honorifics.

Since you don't use honorifics toward yourself, when talking to other people about your family, you use oji 伯父 to refer to your uncle, and ojisan 伯父さん to refer to their uncle.

However, when talking to your own family, ojisan refers to your own uncle.

Toward Older Men

The word ojisan 小父さん can also refer not to your "uncle" but to an elder man instead. There's no hard rule about how old he has to be. It's a mid-point between oniisan and ojiisan.

Manga: Hinamatsuri ヒナまつり (Chapter 9, 勘当ロックンロールフィーバー)

• Context: Nitta Yoshifumi 新田義史 says what he did in a bar.
• ojisan, ikura nandemo {hidoi} to omoimasu
  おじさん　いくら何でもひどいと思います
  [Mister], [no matter the circumstances] [I] think {[what you said] is horrible}.
  • The bartender, who is a child, refers to Nitta as ojisan, because he's at an age around of her father's age, or her father's brother's age, that is, he could be her uncle if they were related, he's uncle-aged, ojisan-aged.
  • ikura nandemo
    いくら何でも
    No matter how much, no matter the circumstances, regardless of what happened, etc.
• honto ni..... {kakeru} kotoba mo nai wa......
  ほんとに･･････かける言葉もないわ･･････
  Really...... [I] don't even have [what to say]......
  • honto - same as hontou 本当, with long vowel shortened
  • kotoba wo kakeru
    言葉をかける
    To pour words [onto someone]. (literally.)
    To give someone words. To talk with someone.
• pon
  ポン
  *tap*
  (onomatopoeia.)
• furufuru
  フルフル
  *shaking [head disapprovingly sideways]*
  (mimetic word.)

In anime, sometimes child characters can call young men in their 20's ojisan, giving them a bitter and unwarranted taste of the cruelty inherent of the passage of time.

One particular anime about a salaryman ojisan:

• ojisan to mashumaro
  おじさんとマシュマロ
  Ojisan & Marshmallow.

When the word is used like this, it sometimes comes after the demonstrative pronouns kono, sono, ano.

• ano ojisan
  あのおじさん
  That old man.
• ano ossan
  あのおっさん
  (same meaning.)
• kono ojisan
  このおじさん
  You! (you old man!)
• kono ossan
  このおっさん
  (same meaning.)

Ojisan Fish

The word ojisan オジサン can also refer to a certain fish, the Manybar Goatfish (Parupeneus Multifasciatus).