# ムカつく：the use of katakana



## Messquito

Either in caption or in an article, I notice this term むかつく, usually shows up as ムカつく.
I used to be confused to see personal pronouns and animal names or _dame_ written in katakana, and this one is even more confusing because it uses both katakana and hiragana.
Any explanation for this practice?

ありがとうございます！


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## wind-sky-wind

There are many cases where you use katakana, instead of hiragana (or kanji).

ボク
ヨロシク
ステキ

One of them is when the kanji is too difficult or there's no kanji, and all hiragana looks somehow awkward.

ヤバい
ムカつく


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## frequency

Katakana ムカ in ムカつく makes the whole casual and emphasised, don't you think?


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## karlalou

These are not conventional usage.

むかつく traditionally means 'feel nausea'.


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## Cowrie

I think, “mukatsuku” is a kind of slang-ish phrase, and such phrases are more subject to native speakers’ arbitrary change. Native speakers are probably too bored to stay with only one way of representing their feelings. We may write it as むかつく、ムカツク、ムカつく, and when I type it, my editor software shows them all in its selection box. From my personal point of view, むかつく looks very traditional, thus sometimes too conventional and boring in casual writing. ムカツク may sometimes look too mechanical and foreign. So I won’t be surprised if you tell me that now ムカつく seems the standard way of writing it.

To add, there is another advantage of using ムカつく (or ムカツク) over its all-hiragana version. In a longer phrase, it can tell you where the beginning of this element in the longer phrase is. So you shouldn’t be confused.


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## karlalou

There's also an expression of getting angry, ムカッとくる. This is also an informal word but not controversial like ムカつく at all. I just feel ムカつく sounds so nasty, don't want to hear that, and believe I'm not the only one. I was surprised to see the definition on a dictionary, which is online but it's a version of a famous well-established dictionary.

I think I feel that way because the same むかつく traditionally means to feel nausea. We also says むかむかする to describe the feeling of nausea.


I think ムカ is in katakana because it is of strong emotion, anger. By writing it in katakana, they are emphasized as well as easier to read.


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## Shiratori99

I think it's often written as ムカつく, because - as others have said before - the onomatopoeia ムカッ is usually written in katakana, and the つく comes from 吐く, which is usually written in hiragana.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Shiratori99 said:


> and the つく comes from 吐く, which is usually written in hiragana.


I disagree with this statement.

If you dare to separate むかつく into　ムカッ and つく, I believe that つく is　付く　（get to do something, start doing something, become a certain condition).

For example, 産気づく. もみじが色づく.　年頃になって色気づく, etc.


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## Shiratori99

SoLaTiDoberman said:


> I disagree with this statement.
> 
> If you dare to separate むかつく into　ムカッ and つく, I believe that つく is　付く　（get to do something, start doing something, become a certain condition).
> 
> For example, 産気づく. もみじが色づく.　年頃になって色気づく, etc.



You are right, that makes sense. But wouldn't 吐く fit in a metaphorical way? Especially since the expression originally meant to become nauseous.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Shiratori99 said:


> But wouldn't 吐く fit in a metaphorical way? Especially since the expression originally meant to become nauseous.



I'm curious why you think in this way.

吐く is はく（haku).
I don't think haku resembles tsuku(つく）. To me, the pronunciations are completely different.

If the word were ムカっぱく, it would be ムカっ＋はく.
However, in case of ムカつく, it is very difficult for me to interpret that it is ムカっ＋はく.
What do you think?


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## Shiratori99

SoLaTiDoberman said:


> I'm curious why you think in this way.
> 
> 吐く is はく（haku).
> I don't think haku resembles tsuku(つく）. To me, the pronunciations are completely different.
> 
> If the word were ムカっぱく, it would be ムカっ＋はく.
> However, in case of ムカつく, it is very difficult for me to interpret that it is ムカっ＋はく.
> What do you think?



Ah, I didn't know it was pronounced はく when meaning to vomit. I was thinking of 嘘を吐(つ)く. Nevermind then


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## frequency

ムカつく　is a slang, an adjective _disgusting_.
彼はムカつく。 
ムカつく音楽　(the music that irritates you)
See the two work as adjectives.
Is むかつく made up of two constituents: むか＋つく? I'm not sure, but it is obviously related to むかむかする.
Formally, it can describe your stomach condition (feeling sick).
胃がむかつく。 So you want to vomit.


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## Flaminius

Shiratori, your etymology may hold true for 毒づく (malign, curse; from spew venom?) but not for むかつく (I stick to the all-hiragana representation as it seems to be most neutral but don't worry there is no or very little orthography in Japanese).

I would align it with other verbs derived from terms of statuses.  They include 色づく, べとつく, 調子づく.


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