Bokeh

Continuing with the photography theme of my previous post, I thought I'd add a bit of relevant Japanese language information!

Many people may have heard the term "bokeh" used in photography. Bokeh is explained to be the quality of things which are out of focus in a photograph.

View of UH, by me, 2011- Pretty glittery bokeh spots on the window!

This term has become most notorious in recent years by those pretty little circles you get from Christmas lights, or shimmering glitter!

Jellybean dispenser, by me, 2012 - Christmas tree bokeh!

So, on to the language part! Boke (暈け) is actually a Japanese term which means blur, haze, or confusion. If you want to go a bit deeper, bokeru (暈ける) is an ichidan (class 2) verb with a similar meaning. In English spelling, the "h" has been added to the end to prevent people from pronouncing it like "poke." I'm not entirely sure why we have adopted the Japanese word for this, but I always love finding out origins of words that we use in English!