Meaning of 虚ろに in this particular case


I was doing my daily dose of reading and I came by this particular sentence,
which I had a little bit of trouble finding the meaning for.

「このあたりからまた意識が虚ろになってしまいました」

The context is a patient who had brain surgery and is struggling to get his
thoughts together. I roughly translate it to "Once again my consciousness has
faded from these effects".

The 虚ろに has been the main problem I have with this particular sentence. I know
the 虚ろ is a way to address something hollow, or give a sense of emptiness
thats different from 空; but I'd like some confirmation on the usage of that
虚ろに in this sentence. Also, the「あたり」is written in hiragana, so I'm not 100%
sure on it meaning "effects".

Once again, thanks for anyone taking their time to answer this question!




First, it looks like you are somehow seeing a word that is simply not there --
「[当]{あ}たり」 --, which is preventing you from understanding this sentence even
without the word 「[虚]{うつ}ろ」.

The word that you should be seeing instead is 「[辺]{あた}り」. 「このあたり」 means
"around here/there". Unlike 当たり、辺り is very often written in kana.

(For the pronunciation-conscious students, 「[辺]{あた}り」 and 「[当]{あ}たり」 are
pronounced very differently from each other. The pitch accent is on the あ in
辺り and it is on the たり in 当たり.)

> 「このあたりからまた[意識]{いしき}が[虚]{うつ}ろになってしまいました。」

「意識が虚ろになる」 means "to become not fully conscious"

> "From around this point (in time), I became not fully conscious again."




First, it looks like you are somehow seeing a word that is simply not there --
「[当]{あ}たり」 --, which is preventing you from understanding this sentence even
without the word 「[虚]{うつ}ろ」.

The word that you should be seeing instead is 「[辺]{あた}り」. 「このあたり」 means
"around here/there". Unlike 当たり、辺り is very often written in kana.

(For the pronunciation-conscious students, 「[辺]{あた}り」 and 「[当]{あ}たり」 are
pronounced very differently from each other. The pitch accent is on the あ in
辺り and it is on the たり in 当たり.)

> 「このあたりからまた[意識]{いしき}が[虚]{うつ}ろになってしまいました。」

「意識が虚ろになる」 means "to become not fully conscious"

> "From around this point (in time), I became not fully conscious again."

