こじらせ

• 読み: こじらせ
• ローマ字: kojirase
• 漢字の分解: From the verb 拗らせる (kojiraseru, to make complicated/aggravate). 拗 means twisted/warped
• 発音: /ko.dʑi.ɾa.se/

意味

Overthinking, having a complicated personality — someone who has tangled themselves up psychologically, often about love, identity, or self-worth.

From the verb 拗らせる (to make worse/complicate), こじらせ describes someone who has made their own emotional or psychological state unnecessarily complicated through overthinking and rumination. こじらせ女子 (complicated girl) became a buzzword in the 2010s: a woman who can't be straightforward about love because of past trauma, insecurity, or excessive self-analysis. The concept has expanded to こじらせ男子 and general usage for anyone whose personality has become knotted up by their own thought patterns.

例文

1. こじらせ女子って恋愛に素直になれないんだよね。
2. 自分をこじらせてるって自覚はある。
3. 元カレとの別れ方がトラウマで、完全にこじらせた。

使い方ガイド

場面: friends, social media, self-deprecation

トーン: sympathetic, analytical

正しい言い方

• こじらせてるなーって自分でも思う。 (I think to myself that I've gotten too complicated.)
• こじらせ女子あるある、わかりみ深い。 (Relatable complicated-girl moments — I feel that deeply.)

避ける言い方

• 本当に心に傷を負っている人に「こじらせてる」は軽率 (Telling someone with genuine psychological wounds they're 'just overthinking it' is insensitive)

よくある間違い

• Confusing with the original medical meaning (making an illness worse) — the slang meaning is specifically about psychological/emotional complication
• Not knowing that こじらせ can be a verb form (こじらせる/こじらせた) or a noun modifier (こじらせ女子)

起源と歴史

From the verb 拗らせる (kojiraseru, to aggravate/complicate). Originally used for worsening illnesses (風邪をこじらせる = letting a cold get worse). The psychological/personality meaning emerged in the 2010s, with こじらせ女子 becoming a bestselling book title in 2011.

文化的背景

時代: 2010s buzzword (こじらせ女子 book, 2011)

世代: Millennials and Gen Z

社会的背景: Universal informal

地域メモ: Used nationwide. Particularly common in discussions about dating, relationships, and self-identity.