KANAE
271Japanese proverb ことわざ

名は体を表す

Na wa tai o arawasu

“The name reveals the thing.”

The meaning

What is named with care is thought with care: names end up shaping what they designate. Naming your project, your role, your day well is already steering them.

At the origin

A proverb on the power of names, dear to craftsmen and founders.

The characters

  1. naname
  2. watopic marker
  3. 表す

The complete word-by-word reading, in KANAE.

ParticleMarks the topic: what the sentence is about — “as for…”.

In practice

Rename precisely the vague task on your list: it will become doable.

Themes

In the collections · Ikigai

Similar proverbs

Related expressions

See also