低い鼻 vs 短い鼻 and 高い鼻　vs 長い鼻 ?


After reading this thread: [When would you use 低い【ひくい】 vs
短い【みじかい】](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/594/when-would-you-use-
vs), I'd just thought of something.

I once heard that a long nose (witch / Pinocchio) is called 高い鼻 and not 長い鼻
whereas the opposite (short nose) is called 低い鼻 and never 短い鼻. but i couldn't
be sure (i mean in english, a tall nose just sounds wrong)

Does anyone know what's the difference between a 低い鼻 vs 短い鼻 and a 高い鼻 vs a 長い鼻
?




The distinction is not directly due to human vs. non-human as the other
answers say. In case of human, people are interested in the distance of the
tip of the nose from the surface of the face (excluding the nose); hence the
concept of height is relevant. With elephants, their nose is not a solid thing
sticking straight out of their face. Rather, its hanging off the face; hence
the notion of length is more appropriate.




One does say "象は鼻が長い" ("the elephant has a long nose"). 長い here seems to be
limited to animals. I guess the same goes for 短かい。

For people, you'd go for the 高い/低い pair.

By the way, "鼻が高い" also means "to be proud".

