Questions tagged [etymology]
語源. The study of the origin of words and the historical development of their meanings. Sometimes used for kanji as well; we currently don't have a separate tag for character origins.
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How did 象【しょう】 ( ≈かたち、 すがた、ようす) and 象【ぞう】 (どうぶつ) get to be written with the same kanji?
How did each term come to be represented by the same kanji 「象」?
I assume there's no connection between both meanings beyond sharing the same kanji because they look so different to me, but I'm not ...
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たいまつ , why is it in this order: 松明?
So torch is たいまつ, and is written in kanji as 松明. Matsu, however, means pine, which is the first kanji, not the second. Are there many words like this in Japanese that seem "out of order"? Is ...
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Why is there a 分 in 自分?
I didn't find anywhere why is the minute's kanji there in 自分? Is it because a meaning of 分 is "part". Please clarify.
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What conjugation of 願う is 願わくば, and what does it mean here?
This is my first post here, I'm sorry if I didn't follow any formatting or posting rules.
Original sentence, from a character's monologue:
願わくばこの時間が少しでも長く続くことを。。。
The English translation I have (...
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What is the origin of the phrase 一石二鳥?
This particular 四字熟語 is exactly the same as the proverb in English, "kill two birds with one stone." I find it to be a strange coincidence that both would have this phrase independently of each other, ...
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Origin/etymology of こころ～ words
There are three unique words that begin with こころ～:
快い （こころよい）、 試みる （こころみる）、 志 （こころざし）
What is the origin of these words in relation to "heart/spirit/mind", if any??? Or is this just something ...
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Origin of 〜かった?
Is it by any chance the case that, historically, the い-adjective ending 〜かった is a contraction originating from 〜くあった, where あった is the past inflection of ある?
To me, it sure sounds plausible, and ...
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Origin of the kanji for 叶う
One thing that has always confused me is how the word 叶【かな】う took on the meaning of for a (wish) to come true. I find this perplexing because in Chinese, the word has never had this meaning. 叶's ...
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Origin of 信じる, 感じる, etc?
Wikipedia claims that Japanese verbs are a closed class and that loanwords from Chinese always use する. 信じる, 感じる seems to be an exception. Why aren't they 信をする and 感をする? Maybe because one kanji is too ...
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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 ...
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Oceans ー Thick or Big?
Straightforward question. The Pacific Ocean is 太平洋【たい・へい・よう】 and the Atlantic Ocean is 大西洋【たい・せい・よう】. What was the reasoning in using a different character for the たい in each? And why 太 for Pacific ...
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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 ...
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Is there a reason why 嚥 (swallow -deglutition) and 燕 (swallow -bird) are similar like in English?
I recently came across the kanji 燕, and found out about 嚥 today.
According to jisho.org, both translate to "swallow", except that the first one means swallow bird and the second one (with the "mouth" ...
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Heuristics for identifying Japanese-origin words (和語)
Given a word and its reading, I'm interested in having it be automatically be identified as Japanese-origin (和語, but excluding 和製英語 and 和製漢語) or not. False negatives and positives aren't really a ...
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Was "乎" the man'yōgana spelling of the accusative/object particle "を"?
In the English Wiktionary entry for "を" there is a quote or example sentence using the character "乎" with no explanation seemingly where the particle "を" would normally occur.
Now I couldn't find ...
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Why does 「（から）というもの」 have a meaning of "recently/since"?
I have given three examples below to illustrate my question. I can't understand why the expression "というもの” equates to "recently/since".
この一週間というもの、忙しくてほとんど寝ていない。
For the / since last ...
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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 means"?
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What is the image/feeling/concept behind 面白半分に◯◯する?
In a phrase like:
面白{おもしろ}半分に見る
or
面白半分に言う
What is the concept behind the 半分 and why is it connected with the verb using に?
Is it like "all things have two parts/aspects": serious (真剣半分?) and ...
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Are 済む・澄む・住む cognate?
Which of these words are cognates (share a common etymology)?
住【す】む ("live") (rarely 棲む or 栖む)
澄【す】む ("clear") (rarely 清む)
済【す】む ("end")
According gogen allguide and several dictionaries such as the ...
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Origin of katakana ン (カタカナの「ン」の字源)
Looking on various pages, the origin of ン seems to be very confused. Most lists either don't include ン, or list one theory. So far I've found the following options:
一
爾
无
尓
二
冫
Wikipedia also ...
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Why aren't マンション mansions? Or are they?
And no, this isn't about property sizes in Japan!
As Katakana Mysteries: 6 loan words Japan got wrong put it:
Bill Gates or Warren Buffet might be very surprised if they were to
buy a Japanese ...
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The uses & etymology of で
In Japanese, the particle で seems to have multiple uses:
Instrumental: 車{くるま}で大阪{おおさか}に行{い}った。 "I went to Osaka by car."
Locative: 図書館{としょかん}で数学{すうがく}を勉強{べんきょう}している。 "I'm studying math in the library....
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Etymology of the term お局 and how it is used in slang
Can someone explain the etymology of the word お局 as well as how it is used in modern slang? I took an educated guess as to the colloquial meaning but am unsure of its nuances, be they comedic, ...
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Where does the phrase 「ノリが悪い」 come from and what is the meaning?
What is this phrase 「ノリが悪い」? I've seen it in a few places, but I haven't been able to find it in a dictionary yet. I had first thought it meant that "the seaweed was bad".
What is the meaning of ...
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Is the word ムキムキ a deliberate visual pun?
I recently learned the word ムキムキ and what instantly struck me was how it appears to be some kind of a visual pun.
ム representing a flexed arm 💪
キ representing a classic barbell
Together they ...
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Why are 来る and する irregular?
I know that there are more irregular verbs than just this, but their changes are mostly euphonic and not really of any interest to me. What I would like to know is why 来る and する have developed the way ...
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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 ...
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What's up with animal names ending in る?
猿・ツル・ホタル・カエル
る is a rather uncommon mora in nouns, especially at the end. But there seem to be an unproportional amount of animal names that end in る.
Is that just a coincidence?
For 猿 at least, there ...
user40476
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Similarity between 挟む and 狭む
today I came across a certain sentence and I was confused by one word in it:
親指の腹で石を支えながら、人差し指と中指の間に挟む。
When I read this, I mistook 挟む for 狭｛せば｝む, and apparently, 狭｛せば｝む is barely used outside ...
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rationale of するんじゃない as informal negative imperative
I know verb-んじゃない can be used in colloquial speech as a negative imperative (e.g. するんじゃない) in lieu of verb-な (するな), but why exactly does it function that way?
That is, what is the rationale/etymology ...
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How did 参った come to mean 'defeated' from 参る?
I've heard the phrase 参った and understood it to mean something like 'I/we lost' or 'knocked out'. How did this come from 参る, to visit or go by? I read in a dictionary that it's some phrase said by a ...
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Etymology of "よう" in "豆腐{とうふ}よう"
I found out there is a special kind of Okinawan tofu called 豆腐よう.
According to EDIC/WWWJDIC it can also be written as "豆腐餻" and "唐芙蓉".
"餻" seems to mean "cakes, pastry", but considering that this is ...
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Was sake always called nihonshu?
Was nihonshu (what English refers to as "sake") always called nihonshu, or was it only called that once western alcoholic beverages were introduced to Japan?
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What is the etymology of the "emphatic" ない?
Upon looking up the term 大事ない, I was, shall we say, nonplussed to learn that it could mean both "very important" and "not very important". The explanation of the "very important" meaning clears things ...
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What function did あり perform in classical Japanese 形容詞?
In classical Japanese, many uses of 形容詞{けいようし} had あり "embedded" in them, e.g.:
熱からず = 「熱し」の連用形＋「あり」の未然形{みぜんけい}＋「ず」
熱かりたり = 「熱し」の連用形＋「あり」の連用形{れんようけい}＋「たり」
熱かれ = 「熱し」の連用形＋「あり」の命令形{めいれいけい}
熱かる人 = 「熱し」...
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Why does いい加減 have diametrically opposite meanings?
When scolding a misbehaving child, we tell them to be iikagen:
いい加減にしなさい。
But we can also tell a misbehaving child to stop being iikagen, or describe something bad as iikagen:
もういい加減でやめなさい。
...
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Etymology of the irregularities in day-of-the-month numerals
It is of course well known that the numbers used to count days are based on the Japonic numerals, but with a bunch of irregularities when compared to the つ-numbers. Compare
1 ひとつ ついたち
2 ふたつ ふつか
3 ...
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What is the etymology of お陰で/おかげで and how does the expression relate to the kanji?
If おかげで / "okagede"
is an expression that means
thanks to ...; owing to ...; because of ...;
and the correct (?) kanji that this expression derived from is
陰 as in お陰で
which by itself ...
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Reading 塞 and 省: When on and kun readings go together
I looked up 塞 in my 漢和辞典, and I found four readings:
音：サイ、ソク
訓：とりで、ふさ・ぐ
What I noticed is that サイ is used when the kanji means とりで, and ソク is used when the kanji means ふさぐ:
「とりで」の意味： 要塞{ようさい}・[防塞]{...
user1478
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Why does 見合せ mean a service interruption?
Etymologically, why does 見合せ ("exchanging a look") mean "interruption, postponement"?
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Etymology and usage of 凸待ち
I've seen the internet slang 凸{とつ}待{ま}ち used for "waiting for incoming (Skype etc) calls" pretty frequently, but what is the etymology and usage of the word?
I've read on other sites that it came ...
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Where does the -a stem come from with auxiliary-constructed transitive/intransitive verb pairs if the base verb is a 二段活用 (or カ行変格活用)?
It seems to be generally understood that transitive/intransitive verb pairs, when they are not a 四段活用 and a 二段活用 that share the same 終止形, were created by taking a base verb, whether transitive or ...
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What is the story behind "peach kanji" 桃?
I wanna know why this kanji is containing the tree kanji 木 + the omen kanji 兆 ? What is the relation between tree and omen to give us a kanji for the peach ? Is it a historical story?
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What is the etymology of the word あなた?
Is there any relation to "anatta", the Buddhist concept of non-self? I've heard that Japanese has some slight Pali/Sanskrit influences due to the arrival of Buddhism in Japan. Could these words be ...
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Why is the meaning of kanji 閑 "leisure"?
The kanji 閑 contains 門 + 木.
Why does gate + tree mean 'leisure'?
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Why is たばこ written in hiragana instead of katakana?
While studying my Genki textbook I noticed that the word たばこ uses hiragana instead of katakana. I've always seen loan words to be in katakana, so this was interesting to me. I saw in this answer that ...
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Does Japanese have any infixes?
In English, we have prefixes, like "pre-"; suffixes, like "-ize"; and arguably, expletives that function as infixes (one classic example is "abso-fucking-lutely").
In Japanese, we also have prefixes,...
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Are "papa" and "mama" also used in Japanese as father and mother?
I often hear "papa" and "mama" in animes, in situations where they seem to mean father and mother. Is that so? Are these words borrowed from the Spanish words "papá" and &...
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Etymology of transitive/intransitive verb pairs
Many verbs come in pairs, frequently but not always transitive/intransitive pairs. These verbs generally have multiple okurigana characters, but according to my dictionary one of the pair was formerly ...
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Why isn't there an actual Japanese word for "balcony"?
The Japanese word for "balcony" is a loanword of veranda - ベランダ (Beranda). Veranda is a Anglo-Indian word from Hindi varanda which came from Portuguese varanda and is extensively used in ...
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