Cool Compound – 回想
回想 (かいそう) literally means “spin thoughts around,” or something like that. 想い (おもい) is, I believe, the direct object of 回す (まわす). Why are they not in the Japanese order (DOをVする)? I think it’s because the compound is Chinese in origin and therefore uses the same grammatical order as English (Subject Verb Object).
A less literal translation gives you “recall, recollect.” The other possibility is “flashback,” which is how I saw it used the other day. Pretty cool stuff.
June 24th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Pff, compounds including the sound “kai” and using Chinese word order are, like, so last week.
June 24th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
The first (and so far, only) usage I’ve seen this word is when watching TV. As I always watch with the captioning turned on, when there’s a flashback they stick 回想 on top of the captions to let you know that it’s… a flashback.