The current use of ketchi in fact takes in both senses of mean- niggardly and unkind, one who withholds out of malice or ungenerosity: but it bugs me that most people reading it will only take it in one sense. I could rant here about the flattening effect of American English, but I won't.
But I *will* rant about 'greedy', which is currently driving me bats as well. The sense of 'greedy' has gone beyond 'gluttonous' in current English, and that's fine. Greed for money or power or whatever is more serious than simple greed for food. My translator's problem is that gluttonous itself has passed out of colloquial usage. This matters when you're dealing with Asian characters for whom gluttonousness is a) a defining characteristic b) sort of condemned and c) humourous. The guy who eats a lot in NAmerica isn't called gluttonous. The opprobrious word is fat: which causes problems when the guy isn't. Gokuu, Luffy, that kid in Kou Josei: they're hungry all the time, and they overeat, but that's OK- linguistically at least- because they aren't fat.
So what's the word that conveys condemnation of the thin guy who lives for food? 'Piggy' exists, but I hear it as a kid's word; it's also a problem if the character's name already is 'Piggy.' ^_^ When gluttonous is one characteristic being condemned among a list of others- he's lazy, he's selfish, he eats too much and he sponges on other people (that last is another crux) what's the adjective that fits in that list?
Some days I hate being a NAmerican English speaker. Language here has as little flavour as the food. I think I'll move to Scotland where I can rejoice in a vocabulary of abuse that derives from Middle English. (Or Newfoundland, which is closer to home.)
