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I know that literally this is related to green onion/leek, but there is this sentence: あ、ネギの妖精だ。 This is in the end of description, how stupid was someone's actions. I could possibly translate it to something like: "What a moron." telling from context. Thing is, I realy wonder what is exact meaning of ネギの妖精 and more generally, what is this in the first place? Thanks in advance for your help!

Edit: Unfortunately, I had this context wrong - this sentence was used when character had noticed that someone else started to removing the onion/leek from her meal, because she was "not in the mood" to eat that kind of vegetable. This was explained later, after this problematic sentence, but I've stopped translating after being stuck on it. Nevertheless, with explained context, the question is still valid.

henreetee
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ade
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    I'm a native speaker and I can say there is no idiomatic meaning in ネギの妖精. Although ネギ itself is a very common vegetable in Japan, it has nothing to do with stupidity. We need much broader context. Can you share the title, what type of character this is, and so on? – naruto May 03 '20 at 02:10
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    So they are simply talking about a "leek fairy" or "fairy of leeks", but unfortunately what it actually means is still unclear to me. The context you provided in the edit is still not enough. I'm sure you are missing something, but I don't what it is. If you still need help, please post the original sentences (and preferably pictures, too). My best guess for now is that the removed leek happened to look like the shape of a fairy? – naruto May 04 '20 at 17:18

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I assume you think whole ネギの妖精 is a set phrase, but it's not.
However, ~の妖精 is literally translated into "a fairy of ~," and is a funny expression of "someone obsessed with ~" or "someone always attracted to ~" , which is sometimes used in gag manga.
ネギ means a leek, so ネギの妖精 is someone {obsessed with/always attracted to} leeks.
More detailed context is required for better explanation, but "あ、ネギの妖精だ。" seems a line in gag manga and the meaning you guessed was "What a moron," so this meaning would be appropriate.


~の妖精 example:

A「キリマンジャロとブルーマウンテンの違いってわかんないんだよな」
B「何の話~?」
A「うわコーヒーの妖精が来た」

A: I don't know difference between Kilimanjaro coffee and Blue Mountain coffee.
B: What are you talking~?
A: Aw a fairy of the coffee has come.

Spoonail
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    Does ~の妖精 really mean "someone obsessed with ~"? Could you list some examples? (Maybe ~の鬼, for example 読書の鬼, has a similar implication, though) – naruto May 03 '20 at 06:44
  • @naruto I've certainly seen that expression a few times in daily-life (日常系) manga or some scene with similar mood, but unfortunately can't remember the actual source. Then, added an example conversation I've created now to my answer. Well, I may be assuming too much. Anyway we need more context to answer ade's question correctly. – Spoonail May 03 '20 at 11:44
  • By the way, now I think "someone who always attracted with ~" is slightly more appropriate description than "obsessed with~" because the former is closer to the sense of "fairy." I added this too. – Spoonail May 03 '20 at 11:45
  • Okay, this コーヒーの妖精 is understandable with the aid of the context (although it's not common at all). But a negi-maniac is extremely rare if not impossible, and it does not explain why such a person is a moron anyway... – naruto May 03 '20 at 18:32
  • >although it's not common at all Well, the question seems to relate to funny content like manga or anime. In the case like that, we should mention expressions "not common at all." If only we had some corpus collecting phrases from manga or anime. – Spoonail May 09 '20 at 04:07
  • > But a negi-maniac is extremely rare if not impossible, and it does not explain why such a person is a moron anyway... I think negi-maniac can appear in gag context. And "What a moron." seemed to be some punchline, so I assumed the line "あ、ネギの妖精だ" was one for that. Anyway, now the person who is mentioned as ネギの妖精 doesn't seem to like leeks, so my answer doesn't work now... – Spoonail May 09 '20 at 04:25