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Yomi
えんじょうする
Rōmaji
enjou suru
Type
idiom
Literal Meaning
to burn intensely
Meaning
come under fire; be severely bashed/crucified
Synonym
バッシングされる
Additional Info
Nowadays, a myriad of people 炎上する after making inflammatory remarks or uploading videos of their stupid and inappropriate/illegal behaviour on social media. A lot of them do this on Twitter in particular, and hence some people call Twitter “馬鹿発見器” (“idiots detector”) or バカッター (バカ + ツイッター).
Some people make 炎上 on purpose to attract attention for their benefit. This type of 炎上 is called “炎上商法 (えんじょう しょうほう, enjou shouhou)”, where “商法 (しょうほう, shouhou)” means “commercial strategy”. For instance, some celebrities are often criticised for doing this by posting provocative/inflammatory oppinions on social media to increase their followers. Similarly, some companies advertise their products with controversial or sexual lines.
Note that this word is also used literally as in the second example sentence below.
Example
あのアスリートが人種差別的な発言をして、炎上した。
That athlete made racist remarks and came under fire.
車が衝突した後に炎上した。
A car caught fire after a collision
