The study of the origin of words and the historical development of their meanings.
10
votes
1answer
174 views
Unifying concept for noun-adjectives of the pattern Xかな
Consider these:
～か：
静か
愚か
厳か
～やか:
穏やか
鮮やか
賑やか
～らか:
柔らか
滑らか
明らか
There are many more that I've not listed.
The か/やか/らか at the end of these words ...
12
votes
2answers
214 views
Was 俺 ever gender-neutral?
I've heard elderly women in Japan referring to themselves using 俺. This leads me to believe that the usage has changed overtime to become only used by males. Did 俺 used to be gender-neutral?
8
votes
1answer
1k views
What are the meanings of ~とも [tomo] and ~かしら [kashira]?
Sometimes I think:
～とも came from ～と思う
～かしら came from ～かしらん（知らない）
It's possible I'm wrong, so I would like to know the real meaning of those suffixes. Also, I'd like to know when I can use them ...
1
vote
1answer
117 views
The etymology of the word バックシャン
What is the etymology of the word バックシャン?
I understand it commonly refers to a woman beautiful only from behind. See this definition-
女性のうしろ姿が均整がとれて美しいこと。また、その女性。多く、前から見ると失望するような
場合にいう。
I ...
2
votes
1answer
74 views
What is the etymology of どんちゃん騒ぎ?
WWWJDIC defines it as this:
どんちゃん騒ぎ【さわ】 (n) merrymaking; high jinks; spree
観光客は町中飲み歩いてどんちゃん騒ぎをした。 The tourists painted the whole town red
What is the etymology of this word? Is it in common ...
2
votes
1answer
133 views
Is まい as in あるまい really only used in literary texts or TV?
My understanding --admittedly limited-- is that in Japanese, people say as much as they can with as little words as possible. So I wondered why ないだろう would be used in everyday speaking instead of まい? ...
6
votes
1answer
416 views
Ancient practise of sneaking into women's bedrooms…?
I was looking up the meaning of スマ婚{こん}, when my mouse happened to roll over the kanji 婚{こん}, and this definition popped up in Rikaichan:
婚 よばい ancient practice of creeping at night into a woman's ...
10
votes
1answer
164 views
What is the significance of a large く character in literary texts?
I am currently reading an early story by Tanizaki Junichiro in Japanese. I have come across both the hiragana く and ぐ written twice the size they usually are, taking up the same amount of space on the ...
0
votes
1answer
103 views
Different permutations of 気 [closed]
Lots of words/expressions/phrases use 気 in one way or another. For example 気をつけて, 気味, 気になる, 気がつく, 気がする, 天気 etc...
Is there a reference somewhere for the seemingly more "interesting" phrases (like the ...
4
votes
1answer
119 views
擦れ違う usage and etymology?
擦れ違う is one of my new vocabulary words, so I try to understand as much as I can. I looked up a couple of meanings for the word and I found that it is used to describe 1) when two things pass each ...
3
votes
0answers
84 views
Why is “there” pronounced あそこ and not just あこ? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Irregularity of あ-series in demonstratives
Maybe this is a little hard to answer, but I'm curious why the typical これ/それ/あれ pattern doesn't apply to ここ/そこ/あそこ. Is anyone ...
2
votes
1answer
103 views
What is the etymology for やいかに
I would like to know more about the usage and etymology of やいかに
Example sentences:
はたして結果やいかに
運命やいかに
はたして鑑定やいかに
Questions:
What is the etymology of the word?
I have seen also はいかに ...
0
votes
0answers
252 views
What is Boruto Tekusuchaa? [closed]
What is Boruto Tekusuchaa? It is kind of a dress. That is all I know. can someone help with identifying it? I think it has some sort of tibetian influence.
4
votes
2answers
207 views
Understanding the たがい in 仲たがい
What is the etymology of the suffix(?)たがい in 仲たがい and how is it used to express discord? If this is a suffix as such, is it used in combination with any other words?
11
votes
4answers
556 views
Are there any old loanwords from Korean, especially any not written in katakana?
Given the close proximity and long history of interaction of various kinds within East Asia, the great influence of Chinese in both Japanese and Korean, and the similar structures of Japanese and ...
11
votes
4answers
203 views
History of 十干（じっかん）and modern uses
As I was studying vocabulary today, I happened to come across the titular 十干 which are as follows:
甲（こう）• 乙（おつ）• 丙（へい）• 丁（てい） •戊（ぼ）• 己（き）• 庚（こう）• 辛（しん）• 壬（じん）• 癸（き）
There's a somewhat lengthy ...
9
votes
1answer
234 views
What is the meaning/usage of いざ?
Will someone please explain what this word いざ means? I've found several definitions, but I'm very unclear on what it really means and its usage. I've heard it mostly in the following ways:
...
6
votes
2answers
372 views
Significance of the kanji 茶 in the set phrase 滅茶滅茶{めちゃめちゃ} / 目茶目茶{めちゃめちゃ}
While having fun looking up random words in my dictionary software, I found out that the phrase "めちゃめちゃ", which is often used in colloquial sentences like "めちゃめちゃかわいい" has two kanji variants:
滅茶滅茶
...
7
votes
1answer
157 views
What is the etymology of the term [仏]{ほとけ}[様]{さま}?
What is the etymology of the term 仏様 ?
I am interested because of all the meanings this word can possess.
8
votes
2answers
276 views
Origin of onsen term “wani”
Why was "wani" (crocodile or alligator) chosen as a term for a gawker at a konyoku (mixed gender onsen)?
Was it because of the animal's ability to stare, the fact that it is a predator, or was it ...
4
votes
1answer
223 views
Confusion between causatives and intransitive-transitive
I read the answer to this question
How different is 冷やかす from 冷やす? And 散らかす from 散らす?
but somehow wasn't satisfied.
What's the difference between the 2 causative forms ～す and ～せる, e.g. 待たす and ...
5
votes
2answers
205 views
What is the difference between 照{て}れる and 照{て}れてる?
According to my dictionary, both 照{て}れる and 照{て}れてる mean to be shy, or be awkward.
I don't think one is a different verb form of the other. The て+いる form of 照れる would be 照れている, not 照れてる.
So I think ...
5
votes
2answers
232 views
Where does the ド in ド素人 comes from?
素人 means beginner.
ド素人 means total beginner.
ド means "very", "total". Any idea where does this word come from etymologically? It is sometimes also written in hiragana.
Are there other current ...
9
votes
3answers
316 views
Nuance, usage and etymology of お[出]{い}で
I observed in drama and anime (being outside Japan, those are my only ways of keeping in touch with spoken 日本語) that elder people sometimes say お出で to younger people when they want to say something ...
4
votes
1answer
129 views
“Dive” = “fly into”?
The words 飛ぶ and 跳ぶ are both read as とぶ, the former meaning "to fly" and the latter meaning "to jump" (generally; don't know if they are interchangeable at all).
The compound-verb suffix 〜込【こ】む means ...
10
votes
2answers
266 views
What is the etymology of [山葵]{わさび}?
I know that "わさび" 'wasabi' can also be written using kanji as "山葵" and that these two characters mean respectively "mountain" and "hollyhock", but hollyhock doesn't seem at first glance to be related.
...
14
votes
2answers
337 views
Exceptional compounding forms
There are a number of Japanese words which have distinct compounding forms:
-a/-e alternation: 天・雨、酒、上、風、目 — many examples.
-u/-i alternation: 神（[神]{かむ}[集]{つど}ふ）、月（[月]{つく}[読]{よみ}）
-o/-i alternation: ...
7
votes
1answer
204 views
Words with metathesis
What common Japanese words underwent metathesis (transposition of sounds)?
Examples.
新{あたら}しい < あらたしい
秋葉原 {あきはばら} < あきばはら
11
votes
1answer
239 views
Why “社会の窓” (shakai no mado)?
A few years ago I was told by a Japanese friend "社会の窓" (shakai no mado).
It was explained after some giggling that this is what is said to a man who has inadvertently left his fly open, and that it ...
10
votes
1answer
179 views
How can [数]{す}[寄]{き}[者]{しゃ} both mean a tea ceremony master and a “lewd man, a lecher”?
I would like to understand better the etymology or the cultural context surrounding
数寄者
If I believe wwwjdic, this
compound is used to denote
a tea ceremony master (with a reference to a ...
7
votes
1answer
272 views
Do 擬態語 (いらいら, きらきら, すっきり, etc.) generally have root words?
I understand that 擬音語 (ぎおんご) imitate sounds, like どきどき imitates a heartbeat. So, if these onomatopoeia don't have roots I wouldn't be at all surprised.
But where do 擬態語 (ぎたいご) come from? Do いらいら (to ...
5
votes
1answer
174 views
Mukashi-banashi. Do they borrow from other current dialects in addition to older Japanese?
At my schools 日本語クラブ, we studied a 昔話 (舌切り雀）, which like most of the others I've read, had some nonstandard grammatical constructions. I've heard that many of these constructions are archaic forms ...
9
votes
1answer
360 views
Usage of お+[verb stem]+する for humble form and お+[verb stem]+になる for honorific form
Apart from using verb-specific humble and honorific versions (e.g. 参る < 行く < いらっしゃる), the general method of turning a verb into humble is by using お+[verb stem aka 連用形]+する while the general ...
5
votes
1answer
204 views
What's the deal with/origin of the character 曰?
I'm talking about the 曰 from 曰【いわ】く, not the common 日【ひ】 we all know and love.
Why would they "make" two characters that look (for all intents and purposes) exactly the same?
How do you really ...
8
votes
1answer
476 views
Left (ひだり) and right (みぎ) as cardinal directions
In many Indo-European ancient languages, there used to be a strong connection between the words for right and left on one side and the words for south and north1 (respectively) on the other side.
This ...
4
votes
2answers
167 views
What is the etymology of 赤の他人?
彼は赤の他人だよ — He's a total stranger to me
How did "red stranger" come to mean "total stranger" in Japanese? Is there anything that makes this expression make sense more than "That's just what it ...
3
votes
1answer
151 views
What is the etymology of the word マラ?
Does anyone have an opinion on the etymology of the word マラ, a crude term for penis?
Any thoughts on usage are also appreciated.
http://gogen-allguide.com/ma/mara.html
10
votes
2answers
267 views
Etymology of 土産 {みやげ}
The pronunciation "みやげ" does not correspond to on'yomi nor kun'yomi of 土産, so I thought it was a gikun (義訓), but the combination of kanji 土 and 産 does not seem to provide the meaning of "souvenir" ...
9
votes
2answers
256 views
About ご[馳走]{ちそう}: two “runs” would give you “a feast”?
ご[馳走様]{ちそうさま}でした is the greeting that people say after being treat a meal while ご馳走 by itself means “a feast”.
I looked up this word in the dictionary to learn more about the kanji characters. It ...
15
votes
1answer
398 views
Why is a place that sells さけ a さかや?
Is it known why a さかや normally has a か, rather than a け like in さけ?
Are there many other -や constructions for stores that change the spelling of the word added to?
3
votes
2answers
242 views
Translation of “に” into “natural” English
All of my Japanese teachers have told me that な-adjectives converted to に-ending words and い-adjectives converted to く-ending words, when followed by a verb, are 'adverbs'. However, sentences sound ...
6
votes
3answers
510 views
よかろう - What does it mean? Where does it come from?
This is another question that's come from a 昔話。
We have the following section:
大きい箱と小さい箱がありますが、どちらがいいですか。
どちらも結構じゃが、どうしてもと言うのなら、小さいほうでよかろう。
I'm having trouble with the second sentence. My ...
7
votes
3answers
193 views
Where does the いかない in ～わけにはいかない come from?
My first thought is that いかない in this phrase conveys the meaning of 行かない, that is, not progressing to something. But this is mere guesswork.
What is the history of いかない in ~わけにはいかない? Does it have ...
12
votes
1answer
200 views
Why did の disappear from 山手, but in 御茶ノ水 it's in katakana?
I realize that very likely the answer to this question is likely to be something along the lines of "that's just the way it is", but I thought it worth asking to see if there were some insights that ...
5
votes
2answers
120 views
Why is there 丼 {どんぶり} in 丼勘定 {どんぶりかんじょう}?
How does 丼勘定 {どんぶりかんじょう} (sloppy accounting) related to 丼 {どんぶり} (bowl of rice with toppings)? I mean, why どんぶり of all foods and things? Was there special history for the origin of this set phrase?
2
votes
2answers
116 views
What may be the etymology of たり?
Hi all does anyone know why does たりとも mean "not even; not any" ?
Example sentence: 一問たりとも答えられなかった
I was thinking the たり is attached to 一問 to mean something like "stuff like one question" and と means ...
5
votes
1answer
394 views
Etymology of 出来る dekiru
An entry of Tae Kim's blog suggested that 出来る came from Chinese word 出来 that does have the nuance of potentiality, but the most recent visitor's comment claimed that the usage of 出来 in Chinese to show ...
10
votes
5answers
603 views
Is there an objective source of the origins of kanji?
Is there an authoritative source that explains where the different kanji come from and what the radicals mean? I think it's hard to tell from most of the textbooks/other sources whether a shown ...
5
votes
2answers
241 views
Are there verbs that end with ず,づ, ふ, ぷ, しゅう, ちゅう and じゅう? Why not?
I noticed that verb ending syllables cover all of -u syllables (る,く,ぐ,す,つ etc) except ず,づ, ふ, ぷ, しゅう, ちゅう and じゅう.
I suspect that ず is reserved for the negative conjugation thus no plain form verb ...
8
votes
2answers
214 views
Saying 「おかわり」 when requesting second helping: what is being exchanged?
I am aware that the phrase 「おかわり」 that is used when asking for second helping (of meals especially) is an idiomatic expression, so its usage is understood as it is. But, I'm curious about the origin ...
