Deko-Boko

One of my favourite Japanese words is ''凸凹'', because I like both character appearance and pronunciation - deko-boko. It is not a Tetris, but meaning of bumpy, lumpy and uneven. We often use these to describe a rough road.

You know, small portions of Chinese characters derive from pictures of the objects they denote. They have been simplified and stylized. Here, the sun is one of the typical examples.

Source; Wikipedia
In the same way, 'deko-boko' is... as they are. They are so simple, but looks a bit odd. If you reverse these characters like '凹凸', pronounciation is not boko-deko anymore, but ou-totsu. I don't know the reason. Also when you feel down or something dent, you can say 'heko-mu(凹む)'.

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