てめえ
てめえ
pronoun
(vulgar) you; used as a hostile or contemptuous form of address
1.
(vulgar) you; used as a hostile or contemptuous form of address
(vulgar) you; used as a hostile or contemptuous form of address
てめえ、何やってんだ！
What the hell are you doing!
てめえに関係ねえだろ。
It's none of your damn business.
てめえのやったこと、分かってんのか。
Do you even understand what you've done?
2.
(rough) oneself; I (dialectal/rough self-reference, contracted from {手前|てまえ})
(rough) oneself; I (dialectal/rough self-reference, contracted from 手前)
てめえのことはてめえでやれ。
Handle your own business yourself.
てめえで蒔いた種だろ。
You reap what you sow. (Literally: Those are seeds you sowed yourself.)
てめえの力で何とかしろ。
Figure it out with your own strength.
A contraction of 手前 (literally "in front of one's hands"), which originally meant "myself" as a humble first-person pronoun. Over time the second-person usage became dominant, and the pronunciation shifted to てめえ. Now primarily used as a hostile way to address someone, expressing anger, contempt, or threat.
ETYMOLOGY:
手前 → てめえ (phonetic contraction). The shift from humble self-reference to aggressive second-person address parallels a similar evolution in 貴様.
USAGE:
- Extremely rude as a second-person pronoun — carries a threatening tone
- Common in anime, manga, and yakuza films, but rarely used in real-life conversation outside of genuine confrontations
- The self-referential sense ("oneself") survives in set phrases like てめえのことはてめえでやれ
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 貴様 — you (similarly hostile, but more archaic-sounding)
- お前 — you (rough but not as aggressive as てめえ)
- あんた — you (casual/blunt, much milder)