goi Back to the route map日本語

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Meaning

in the end, when all is said and done

Ultimately, after everything that has happened. Usually said of an unwelcome outcome.

Example

何度も会議を重ねたが、とどのつまり現状維持に落ち着いた。

We held meeting after meeting, but in the end we settled on keeping things as they were.

Origin

The gray mullet (bora) is a shusse-uo, a fish whose name changes as it grows, and at its final stage it is called todo. From this the phrase came to mean where things end up. An example appears in the sharebon Kyōden Yoshi (1790).

Sources