言語聴覚士の仕事に感動した話

What does リハビリ (rihabiri) mean in Japanese?

リハビリ (rihabiri) is everyday Japanese for rehab or rehabilitation — physical therapy after an injury, illness, or stroke. It’s a clipped loanword, trimmed down from the much longer リハビリテーション (rihabiriteeshon), the way Japanese habitually shortens imported words that would otherwise be a mouthful. You’ll hear it constantly in hospitals, nursing homes, and sports contexts, almost never in its full form.

In this clip, a granddaughter explains her job to her grandmother: 話す、聞く、飲み込むの問題を解決する人 (“someone who solves problems with speaking, hearing, and swallowing”) — a 言語聴覚士 (speech-language-hearing therapist) — and the grandmother connects the dots herself: そこでリハビりとかしてくれるのが言語聴覚士さんなのか, “so that’s the person who does the rihabiri for you.” Clipping is one of the most productive processes in Japanese loanword vocabulary — セクハラ (sekuhara, sexual harassment) and エアコン (eakon, air conditioner) are built the same way.