BETTA-RI べったり
Meanings
1. Describes a sticky substance spread thickly over a surface, or one surface pressed and stuck flat against another.
2. Describes an extremely close relationship in which someone constantly clings to, depends on, or aligns themselves with another person or group.
Examples
1. My son spreads jam thickly all over his bread.
息子はパンにジャムをべったりつける。
1. Young people these days sit sprawled flat outside convenience stores playing games.
最近の若者は、コンビニの前でべったり座り込んでゲームをしている。
2. When my daughter was little, she clung to me whenever we went out and would not leave my side for a moment.
娘は幼い頃、外出すると私にべったりで片時も離れてくれなかった。
2. He is completely tied to the establishment, so you’ll never hear anything genuinely innovative from him.
あいつは体制にべったりだから、革新的なことは何も言わないよ。
Dogmatic Opinion
The physical image is surface against surface: broad contact, sticking or leaning with almost no space between.
That image transfers easily to relationships. Two people can be BETTA-RI because there is almost no interpersonal distance between them.
The closeness can be affectionate, dependent, irritating, or politically compromising depending on context. The word itself makes the lack of distance vivid.
Proximate Expression
sticky
clingy
tacky
gummy
cozy
stick like glue
Related Words
For Japanese Learners
Stuck to, plastered against, spread thickly over, cling to, constantly together, and closely aligned with may fit. “母親にべったり” can be constantly clinging to one’s mother; “政権にべったり” may be closely tied to or completely aligned with the government. Translate the kind of closeness, not merely “sticky.”
