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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questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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Iterative / repetitive る evolving from classical 連体形【れんたいけい】
This is somewhat related to the discussion of classical auxiliary verb ふ, mentioned in the answer to snailboat's question, What is the わ in 忌まわしい and 嘆かわしい?.
Another apparent iterative / repetitive ...
7
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1answer
158 views
What is the origin of っこない?
There's a construction V+っこない which means something like "have no way of doing V".
お前には分かりっこないでしょう。
There's no way you would understand.
Is it known what this construction originates from? ...
4
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0answers
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What is the reason for the odd vowel values of Japanese ココア?
I've done a bit of digging, and for the life of me, I cannot find any clear record or explanation for why Japanese ココア is pronounced the way it is.
Sources researched to date:
Lots of different ...
4
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0answers
158 views
Why is the Japanese term for grammatical case 「格」? How did this translation come to be?
From Google's definition of 格:
きまり。法則。標準。
「格式・格言・合格・別格・破格・規格・本格・古格・適格・律令格式(りつりょうきゃくしき)」
《名・造》地位。身分。程度。
「格が違う」
方形に組みあわせた材。
「骨格・格子(こうし)・格天井(ごうてんじょう)」
くる。いたる。とおる。きわめる。
「格物致知」
...
3
votes
1answer
164 views
Origin of 「~ にとって」?
I just encountered the 「~ にとって」 construction, as in:
「私にとって家族は大切です。」- "Family is important to me". I think I understand what it's supposed to mean. However, I couldn't find any information about the ...
2
votes
0answers
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Why use 一本 in the expression 一本取る
I was watching an episode of ファニエスト外語学院 on judo.
At 6:26, the judoka remarked how his opponent ボビー could win him just by his horrid face, saying 「顔で一本取られた」って感じです.
I am interested in understanding why ...
2
votes
0answers
56 views
How did 賃 get its 慣用音 reading?
賃 has the 慣用音 reading ちん, as in 家賃{やちん}.
I understand that a lot of 慣用音 readings arise from interpreting the phonetic wrongly (for example 消耗{しょうこう} vs 消耗{しょうもう}), but in this case how did 賃 receive ...
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0answers
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Why are there so many カ行、サ行、ラ行五段活用 verbs?
If you go into a dictionary like Weblio, and you look through their list of verbs, you'll see that each of the consonant 行s of 五段 are in separate categories. However, there are a ton of カ行、サ行、ラ行 verbs,...
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0answers
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Why do Latin letters have English pronunciations in Japanese?
The Latin letters A–Z are used in Japan today and they each have a name just like in English. Take the first five Latin letters, A–E. Source: https://jisho.org
A 【エイ】【エー】
B 【ベー】【ビー】
C 【シー】
Ｄ【ディ】【ディー】
...
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0answers
153 views
爵 how do the 'elements' combine to result in 'baron'
The 4 elements of this japanese kanji are understood, but I cannot see/intuit any connection between them that might result in the concept of 'baron'. Can anyone shed some light on this mystery?
1
vote
1answer
391 views
Questions about の→ん contraction, でござる→でございます shift
【原文】Original version
各これらの語の特徴はいつからなの？何時代ですの？
第一、「のです」と「なのです」を書いて「んです」と「なんです」を書かなかったことはいつからなの？
第に、「でござる」を書いて「でございます」を書かなかったこともいつからなの？
私の日本語がよくないですと、すみません！
Edited version
I have two questions ...
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0answers
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What does Kenneth Henshall mean by “X is used phonetically to express Y”?
Henshall seems to have a quite specific idea about how many phonetic elements end up in characters, which diverges from explanations I find online, but I'm not sure I'm reading him correctly. ...
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0answers
99 views
Etymology of 山賊
The contrastive pair made by 山賊 (brigand) and 海賊 (pirate) works pretty well on a mountainous island, where there are few other places for banditry. But if the words are of Chinese origin, this ...
