水泡

• 読み: すいほう
• ローマ字: suihō
• 漢字の分解: 水 (sui) — water; 泡 (hō) — bubble, foam
• 発音: /sɯihoː/

意味

Bubble; foam; futility; coming to nothing — as in efforts that yield no result.

A noun that literally means a bubble on water, but is almost exclusively used figuratively in the set phrase 水泡に帰す (to come to naught, to evaporate into nothing). This idiom describes all effort or hope dissolving without trace, like a bubble bursting on a pond.

例文

1. 長年の努力が水泡に帰すとは思いたくない。
2. 交渉が決裂し、これまでの成果が水泡に帰してしまった。
3. 計画が水泡に帰さないよう、万全の準備を整えた。

使い方ガイド

場面: literary, formal writing, journalism

トーン: melancholic

起源と歴史

From 水 (water) and 泡 (bubble, foam). The metaphor of a water bubble — beautiful but instantly fleeting — has been used in Buddhist and classical Japanese literature to symbolise impermanence and futility.

文化的背景

時代: Classical–Present

世代: Adults

社会的背景: Educated