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腰まで伸びたブロンドの髪が風になびかれサラサラと揺れていた。

靡く(なびかれ) is used in this sentence in the passive form. It means "bend" and it's an intransitive verb. So why is it in the passive form in this sentence? Why not 髪が風になびく meaning hair bends in the wind? or is there another function of passive where it acts as normal verbs like 言われる in honorific language?

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腰まで伸びたブロンドの髪が風になびかれサラサラと揺れていた。

This sentence looked odd to me because なびく in modern Japanese is always an intransitive verb. However, as aguijonazo pointed out and as this entry from a 古語辞典 says, the verb used to be transitive as well, in the sense of "to bend (something)". I personally didn't know this fact, but was this written by a relatively old novelist?

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  • It was from a modern novel, so I was not quite sure why it is used that way.
    – Tung
    Dec 27, 2021 at 13:23
  • I do believe it’s a misuse. I just shared a discussion that I thought was relevant on an FYI basis. I myself would say なびき or なびかされ.
    – aguijonazo
    Dec 27, 2021 at 15:58
  • @aguijonazo, naruto -- Any chance that the valency (transitivity) of the base for 靡【なび】く might differ in different dialects of Japanese?
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Dec 27, 2021 at 18:54
  • Separately, I'd gloss 靡【なび】く more as "to wave" than "to bend", when used in the the physical motion sense.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Dec 27, 2021 at 18:56
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    @EiríkrÚtlendi - This article (of an unknown origin) seems to suggest it's a recent trend. When certain dialects retain an old meaning of a word, I would expect them to inherit its old forms, too. I believe the correct form here would be なびけられ.
    – aguijonazo
    Dec 27, 2021 at 22:39

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