職業病 (shokugyou byou): Meaning and Examples

Definition

職業病 (shokugyou byou) literally means “occupational disease”, where 職業 (shokugyou) means “a job/occupation” and 病 (byou) means “disease”. However, in a casual context, it also refers to your habits that you cannot help doing because you do them all the time at work.

Examples of 職業病

For instance, if you are a language teacher, probably you often find yourself checking grammatical errors when you’re reading posts/articles, or even when you’re having a chit-chat with your friends (e.g. you think in your heart “OK you mean whom, not who“). If you work as a waiter, you may feel the urge to stack plates after you finish eating at a restaurant.

* And one of my 職業病 (although this isn’t really my job) is that I’m always (often unconsciously) looking for interesting Japanese and English words that I can write about in this blog, whenever I’m reading online posts/articles, having a conversation with my friends, or watching YouTube/TV!

Example Sentences

歯科医(しかい)の友達(ともだち)が、誰(だれ)かが話(はな)しているときについ歯(は)を見(み)てしまうと言(い)っていたけど、まさに職業病だね。

My friend who is a dentist said that he/she cannot help looking at someone’s teeth when they are talking. This is exactly his/her “occupational disease”.

Related Words

Synonym

癖（くせ）: habit

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