Yomi
さばをよむ
Rōmaji
saba o yomu
Type
idiom
Literal Meaning
read mackerels
Meaning
fudge/lie about numbers regarding oneself (e.g. age, height, weight, salary) for one’s benefit.
Synonym
ごまかす
Additional Info
Usage
サバ (mackerel) is written as 鯖 in kanji. Usually, it is used as “Xでサバを読む”, where X is what you lie about, such as your age. You can also say “Xをサバ読む”, where the particle ‘を’ is put after X to mark it as an object of the verb ‘サバ読む’.
Origin
There are a couple of theories about its origin, and the most accepted one pertains to how fishers used to count mackerels in a fish market; in the old days when refrigeration technology was not very developed, fishers had to count mackerels quickly because they spoil very quickly. Therefore, they often miscounted the numbers, and the expression サバを読む (“read mackerels”) came to acquire the meaning “count something roughly”, which in turn led to the current meaning (“lie about numbers”).
Note that 読(よ)む means “read” today but it used to mean “count (something)” — this definition is still present in a few expressions such as 票(ひょう)を読む meaning “count votes” and ‘秒(びょう)読み’ (counting seconds) meaning “(something is) seconds away from happening”.
Example
彼女が１０歳もサバを読んでいたことを知って、ショックだった
I was shocked to find out that my girlfriend had been pretending she were 10 years younger than her age.
本当は身長 168cm だけど、170cm だとサバを読んだ。
I’m actually 168cm tall, but I lied about it and said I’m 170cm.
