burikko

English

Etymology

From Japanese ぶりっ子 (burikko).

Noun

burikko (usually uncountable, plural burikko)

1. (countable) An adult woman who behaves childishly, especially a Japanese woman or a woman involved with Japanese culture.
   • 1989, Leila Philip, The Road through Miyama, →ISBN:

     While boy-crazy American girls labor at sophistication, Japanese women of marriageable age tend to act like girls, and are popularly called burikko—“pretending kids.”

   • 1990, Jennie Lo, Office Ladies, Factory Women: Life and Work at a Japanese Company‎^[1], page 42:

     A burikko is a grown woman who acts like a child. She may be sexually active, but she feigns innocence.

   • 2004, Laura Miller, “You are Doing Burikko!”, in Shigeko Okamoto, Janet Shibamoto Smith, editors, Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology, →ISBN, page 148:

     The author is reporting on the high-pitched voice frequently considered a stereotypical feature of the burikko, a derogatory Japanese label used to describe women who exhibit feigned naïveté.

2. (uncountable) A (Japanese) style or fashion associated with excessive or false cuteness.
   • 1994, Merry White, The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America‎^[2], page 129:

     Girls laciness is not in Japan Madonna-style lace but rather First Communion lace—but with a perky falseness sometimes called burikko, or false-innocent.

Japanese

Romanization

burikko

1. Rōmaji transcription of ぶりっこ