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優勝劣敗 (ゆうしょうれっぱい) Japanese meaning | Kotomora
Meanings 1
noun
survival of the fittest
yojijukugo (four-character idiom)
A yojijukugo (four-character compound) expressing the idea that the strong win and the weak lose, often used in contexts of competition, evolution, or social Darwinism.
ビジネス の 世せ 界かい は 優ゆう 勝しょう 劣れっ 敗ぱい の 厳きび しい 競きょう 争そう だ 。
The business world is a harsh competition of survival of the fittest.
Kanji 優 tenderness, excel, surpass 劣 inferiority, be inferior to, be worse 敗 failure, defeat, reversal Similar words 弱じゃく 肉にく 強きょう 食しょく 弱肉強食 (the weak are meat; the strong eat) is a more vivid, concrete metaphor for the law of the jungle, while 優勝劣敗 is a more abstract, analytical term for the principle of the strong winning and the weak losing.
Etymology A yojijukugo composed of 優 (superior), 勝 (win), 劣 (inferior), and 敗 (lose), literally 'the superior win, the inferior lose'. It is a direct translation of the Western concept 'survival of the fittest', coined in the Meiji period.
