NIKKO-RI にっこり
Meanings
Describes smiling brightly and gently without making a sound.
Examples
A baby on the train made eye contact with me, so I smiled back warmly.
電車でよその赤ちゃんと目が合ったので、にっこり笑い返した。
Japanese people sometimes have a habit of smiling when a foreigner speaks to them even when they have no idea what was said.
日本人は外国人に話しかけられると、意味もなくにっこりする癖がある。
Dogmatic Opinion
You can think of NIKKO-RI as one silent Mona-Lisa-like smile.
If the smile continues, it becomes NIKO-NIKO.
NIKKO-RI can communicate genuine happiness, but it can also be activated when you are not particularly happy and simply want to signal, “I am not hostile.”
That is why I think NIKKO-RI fundamentally needs another person. When completely alone, people do not normally NIKKO-RI—at least, that is my impression.
Japanese has many sound-symbolic ways to distinguish kinds of smiles. NIKKO-RI tends to be the soft, friendly one.
Proximate Expression
grin
beam
To flash a smile from the bottom of one’s heart,
Related Words
For Japanese Learners
Smile, smile warmly, give a gentle smile, and with a smile are natural. “にっこり笑う” often needs nothing more complicated than smile. Unlike English laugh, NIKKO-RI is normally about facial expression rather than an audible laugh.
