PATTA-RI ぱったり
Meanings
1. Describes a relatively light object suddenly falling over or collapsing.
2. Describes an ongoing activity, flow, or occurrence suddenly stopping completely.
Examples
The desk calendar I had propped up suddenly flopped over.
立てかけてあった卓上カレンダーがぱったり倒れた。
The heavy rain and wind suddenly stopped as if they had never happened.
さっきまでの大雨が嘘のように、ぱったりと雨と風が止んだ。
After two o’clock, customers suddenly stopped coming.
Dogmatic Opinion
The image is of a sudden ending followed by quiet.
Rain, wind, customers’ voices—something that had been continuing abruptly disappears, and you notice the silence left behind.
The emotional weight is not necessarily tragic.
Both “My son’s calls stopped PUTTSU-RI” and “My son’s calls stopped PATTA-RI” are possible, but they feel different to me. PUTTSU-RI suggests a severed connection: he may be missing, and even attempts to contact him fail. PATTA-RI could simply mean he used to call every day, then got a girlfriend and stopped calling home. He is probably alive and well.
PATTA-RI is close in sound to BATTA-RI, but here the central idea is a flow suddenly coming to a stop.
Related Words
For Japanese Learners
Fall over, flop down, suddenly stop, abruptly cease, and suddenly dry up may fit. “客足がぱったり途絶えた” can be “Customers suddenly stopped coming.” Do not confuse this with BATTA-RI’s chance-encounter sense.
