Ever Heard of the Word Tsundoku? Here’s What it Means

Got a stack of books on your shelf which have been left unread after you have purchased them? There’s a Japanese term for that. Have you ever heard of “Tsundoku”?

The Japanese word “Tsundoku”, as defined by the Japanese-English dictionary jisho, means “buying books and not reading them”, “stockpiling books” or simply “books bought but not read”.

Andrew Gerstle, a professor of pre-modern Japanese texts at the University of London, further explained the amusing Japanese word. Gerstle told BBC that as early as 1879, the term “Tsundoku” can already be found in print.

“The phrase ‘tsundoku sensei’ appears in text from 1879 according to the writer Mori Senzo. Which is likely to be satirical, about a teacher who has lots of books but doesn’t read them,” he said.

Based on the jisho Japanese-English dictionary, the “doku” means “reading (books)”. Furthermore, according to Gerstle, the “tsun” in “tsundoku” originated from the word “tsumu” which means “to pile up”. Therefore, “tsundoku”, as BBC concluded, means buying reading material and piling it up.

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Source: BBC, Open Culture, jisho, Insider