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Formation: N + めく (godan verb); N + めいて／めいている; N + めいた + N

〜めく means that something shows signs of X or gives off an air of X without fully being it, as in 春めく (start to feel like spring) or 皮肉めいた (with a hint of sarcasm). It is neutral to slightly literary and common in writing, essays and careful speech. It is not freely productive: it attaches to a limited set of nouns such as 春, 冗談, 皮肉, 謎, 秘密, 言い訳, 説教 and 脅迫, and it most often appears as 〜めいた before a noun or as 〜めいてきた for a change of season. Compare 〜げ, which attaches to adjective and verb stems and describes a person's visible feelings (寂しげ), and 〜気味, which means a slight tendency, often a physical condition (風邪気味). 〜めく means 'having the feel of X' rather than 'a little bit of X'.

Variants: 〜めいた、〜めいて、〜めいている、〜めかして (deliberately making it seem like, e.g. 冗談めかして)

Examples

• 三月に入り、日差しもようやく春めいてきた。
  Now that it's March, the sunshine has finally started to feel like spring.
• 彼は冗談めいた口調で本音を漏らした。
  He let slip how he really felt, in a half-joking tone.
• 彼女は謎めいた微笑みを浮かべるだけで、何も答えなかった。
  She just gave an enigmatic smile and did not answer.

In real texts 0 occurrence(s)

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