koubashii (Japanese roasted-aroma descriptor)
concept / concept-koubashii
香ばしい
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Short definition
「香ばしい」 (in translation: "koubashii") and 「こうばしい」 (in translation: "koubashii"). Japanese sensory terms for a pleasant aroma produced by roasting or heating. Japanese dictionary definitions go no further than describing olfactory pleasantness and do not mention bitterness or the blackness of charring.
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Culture (1)
Scope: A definition from a Japanese dictionary (Digital Daijisen, accessed via Kotobank).
Note: The definition goes no further than stating the pleasantness of the smell (『好ましい香り』, in translation: "a pleasant aroma"), with no mention of bitterness, the blackness of charring, or unpleasantness. Where the dictionary itself draws the 『香ばしさと苦味の境界』 (in translation: "boundary between roast aroma and bitterness") cannot be judged from this definition alone — the fact that the dictionary does not touch on the boundary is recorded here as a finding in itself.
Show data
concept-koubashii —is_defined_in_dictionary_as→ "「よい香りがする。多く、食物を煎ったり焼いたりしたときの、好ましい香りにいう」 (in translation: "to have a good smell; most often said of the pleasant aroma of food that has been roasted or grilled") (Digital Daijisen, via Kotobank)"