顰ひそみ

ひ

そ

み

Meanings

frown; knitted brows

Rare standalone noun; almost exclusively used in the idiom 顰みに倣う (ひそみにならう), meaning 'to imitate someone's frown' or, more broadly, 'to blindly imitate others without thinking'.

「顰ひそみに倣ならう」ということわざを知しっていますか。
Do you know the proverb 'to imitate someone's frown'?
彼かの女じょは顰ひそみに倣ならって、同おなじように眉まゆをひそめた。
She imitated the frown and knitted her brows in the same way.

See all 3 example sentences ›

Expressions

顰ひそみに倣ならうto imitate foolishly; to blindly follow a bad example

Kanji

顰scowl, raise eyebrows

Related words

眉まゆをひそめる
Common modern expression for 'to frown' or 'to knit one's brows', used in everyday language, unlike the rare noun 顰み.

Written forms

顰ひそみUsage14%
Rare kanji spelling; the word is almost always encountered in the set phrase 顰みに倣う.
ひそみUsage76%
Kana spelling is practical for learners and avoids the uncommon kanji.
顰Usage10%
- ひそみ
  Alternate kanji spelling, also rare and mostly limited to the same set phrase.
- ひん
ひん

Etymology

The kanji 顰 means 'frown' or 'knitted brows'. The reading ひそみ is the nominalized form of the verb ひそむ (顰む), an archaic verb meaning 'to knit one's brows'. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the word survives almost exclusively in the set phrase 顰みに倣う.