左鮃右鰈

Japanese

Kanji in this term
左	鮃	右	鰈
ひだり Grade: 1	ひらめ Hyōgai	みぎ Grade: 1	かれい Hyōgai
kun'yomi

Etymology

Literally, "left [is] olive flounder, right [is] righteye flounder."

Idiom

左(ひだり)鮃(ひらめ)右(みぎ)鰈(かれい) • (hidari hirame migi karei) 

1. The way to distinguish an olive flounder from a righteye flounder. 鮃(ひらめ) (hirame, “olive flounder”) can be distinguished from 鰈(かれい) (karei, “righteye flounder”) by noting that the eyes of the former are on the left and the eyes of the latter are on the right.