Word of the day

食わず嫌い - kuwazugirai
Na-nominal, literally means "something one dislikes without having eaten it" but is also used in the more expansive sense of having an unfounded negative prejudice.

I learned this in a way that completely cracked me up. I met a professor for lunch earlier today with a friend of mine who, it must be remarked for this story to make sense, is a lesbian. They were discussing the relationship between discrimination based on sexuality and discrimination based on caste - which is my friend's research topic - when the conversation wended its way into the topic of the nature of sexuality itself. Is it more strongly naturally or culturally influenced?

Of course, that's a debate that has no easy answer. But I was very amused when my friend posited the possibility to the professor that his heterosexuality was simply kuwazugirai.