手前

Compound of Old Japanese elements 手 (te, “hand”) +‎ 前 (mae, “front”), originally meaning “that which is just in front of one's hand”.^[1][2][3]

• (Tokyo) てまえ [tèmáé] (Heiban – [0])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [te̞ma̠e̞]

手(て)前(まえ) • (temae) ^{←てまへ (temafe)?}

1. position that is just in front or before; in the nearer position

   Antonym: 奥 (oku)

   あの店(みせ)は交(こう)差(さ)点(てん)の手(て)前(まえ)にある。

   Ano mise wa kōsaten no temae ni aru.

   That store is just in front of the intersection.

手(て)前(まえ) • (temae) ^{←てまへ (temafe)?}

1. (dated, humble, men's speech) I, me (who stands before you)
2. (rare, informal, sometimes derogatory) you

• (antonym(s) of “distant”): 奥(おく) (oku)

Corruption of temae. The vowel shift emphasizes the confrontational sense of the term.^[2][3] This flattening of diphthongs to monophthongs is characteristic of Tokyo's Shitamachi dialect. Compare おめえ (omē, from お前 (omae)), ねえ (nē, from ない), やべえ (yabē, from やばい (yabai)).

• てめぇー, てめェー

• (Tokyo) てめえ [tèméé] (Heiban – [0])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [te̞me̞ː]

手(て)前(めえ) • (temē) 

1. (vulgar, derogatory, men's speech) you, you son of a bitch, you bastard

   手(て)前(めえ)、何(なに)しやがったんだ！

   Temē, nani shiyagatta n da!

   You bastard, what did you do!?

Usually spelled in hiragana as てめえ.

• 貴様(きさま) (kisama)
• 己(おのれ) (onore)

• “手前”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[1] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026