Kanji of そそっかしい

Question

I am wondering about the way to write そそっかしい in kanji, and if this is possible.
I've found that the な-adjective 粗忽｛そこつ｝, a word with very similar if not identical meaning, can in less common cases be read 粗忽｛そそ｝ as well -- yet my google searches do not seem to like 粗忽っかしい｛そそっかしい｝ at all!

Still, since the meanings of these words are so much alike, I can't help but be suspicious. Of course, I'm aware that そそっかしい is normally written in hiragana. But I am still curious about a connection with kanji, so if anyone on here can enlighten me, I will be very happy.

Answer 1

This kotobank.jp link says that『日本国語大辞典』refers to a kanji version of「そそっかしい」as「麁相かしい」, and gives a quote from the novel (section) 式亭三馬『浮世風呂・２・下』:

私が一体麁相かしい性で

Here's a page from『浮世風呂』(taken from 人文学オーペンデータ共同利用センター) with that quote highlighted:

This is my transcription:

If you believe that this furigana says「[麁相]{そそっ}か」(refer to a hentaigana chart), and trust the authority of『日本国語大辞典』, then「そそっかしい」can be written as「麁相かしい」.

In the『日本国語大辞典』entry, the only quote including「そそっかしい」which has kanji is「麁相かしい」.

Additionally, according to this dictionary,「そそっかしい」is actually just a variant and is derived from「そそかしい」with the addition of the sokuon「っ」. Under「そそかしい」, more kanji variants have been recorded, including

• 『和英語林集成』(1867年初版): 「[粗粗]{そそ}かしい」
• 夏目漱石『明暗』: 「...彼を[忽卒]{そそか}しく」

Thanks to @By137 for providing this info

---

尾崎紅葉『金色夜叉』is another novel which possibly uses that reading:

My transcription:

[不相變麁相]{あひかはらずそ〻ツ}かしいね

---

In both cases, it looks like「ツ」(or its very close hentaigana equivalent「𛁪」, U+1B06A) is used for what is now「っ」, which may have been common orthographic practice at that time (these two were written around 1800-1900).

Of course, there might be other kanji representations of「そそっかしい」used around this era; many of these texts are not digitised (or properly checked after digitisation) so they remain unsearchable on the web.

Answer 2

I am wondering about the way to write そそっかしい in kanji, and if this is possible. I've found that the な-adjective 粗忽そこつ, a word with very similar if not identical meaning, can in less common cases be read 粗忽そそ as well -- yet my google searches do not seem to like 粗忽そそっかしい at all!

Your question was nice because I have never paid due attention to this word in Kanji. So I checked.

The above Yuraika.com, which tells us the etymological origin of a word, says,

「そそっかしい」の漢字表記{かんじひょうき｝は不明｛ふめい｝

It is unclear how we express そそっかしい in Kanji.

Although as you found out 粗忽 as a Kanji version 「そそっかしい」、it is yet pronounced as 「そこつ」 but not 「そそっかしい」( Dictionaries say only semantically same not as a pronunciation. )

Conclusion

There is no Kanji for そそっかしい。

Thank you.