Why is the word オタク(otaku) written in katakana?
I thought only foreign words are written in katakana. Is this word maybe foreign after all? But it is used in Japanese, so I am confused. Please give me an answer.
Answer
In this case, katakana is used to indicate オタク is used not in its original sense but in its derivative sense. おたく was (and still is) an honorific expression used to refer to someone's family. So オタク was initially chosen to indicate you need to pay a special attention for interpreting this word. It's similar to enclosing a word with double quotes in English. Today オタク has become a word everyone knows, so it's safe to write it in hiragana, too.
This pattern is found in many technical terms. For example, のど usually means throat in everyday conversations, but ノド in the printing industry refers to an inner margin of a book.
There are many other reasons to use katakana instead of hiragana. See:
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