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Temee (てめえ): what it means in anime

てめえ

てめえ · temee · you (very rude) Not on JLPT lists

Temee is a very rude "you", slurred from 手前 (temae). Shounen heroes and thugs shout it in fights, and it is one of the most reliable markers of rough male speech in anime.

Where you hear it 7 of 42 series

Lines from the Japanese subtitles of episodes 1–3 of each show. A translation is shown only when it clearly matches the line; counts are subtitle lines containing the word.

Usage and nuance

Luffy, Ichigo, Bakugo and Denji all say てめえ. It is pure aggression, not formal contempt like 貴様, and it goes with other delinquent speech: ぞ at the end of sentences, ねえ instead of ない, and の dropped from questions.

Historically 手前 meant "in front of me" and could be a humble "I". In Edo-period speech it turned into "you" and then went downhill. In a samurai show you may still hear the old polite sense.

The spelling varies: てめえ, てめぇ, テメエ. Subtitlers usually turn it into "you" plus an insult or a swear word.

Hear てめえ in Bleach19 lines in episodes 1–3 · tappable subtitles · free, no account