KT37 Word Line
ひにく
皮肉
Hiniku
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Meaning
sarcasm, irony
Criticizing someone indirectly and spitefully. It also refers to an outcome that is the opposite of what was expected, as in hiniku na kekka (an ironic result).
Example
遅れて着いた私に、彼は「ずいぶんお早いご到着で」と皮肉を言った。
When I arrived late, he said sarcastically, "What an early arrival."
Origin
It originally meant literally "skin and flesh," and from there was also used to mean "the surface." Sources such as Gogen Yurai Jiten explain that it comes from hiniku kotsuzui (skin, flesh, bone and marrow), words attributed to Bodhidharma (Daruma), the founder of Zen. In this theory, bone and marrow stand for an understanding that grasps the essence, while skin and flesh stand for a surface-level understanding, and from this the word came to mean making digs at someone. Japanese dictionaries cite busso no hiniku kotsuzui (仏祖之皮肉骨髄) from Dōgen's monastic rules (shingi) as an early example but do not address the etymology.