Questions tagged [false-etymology]
Common but often wrong beliefs about the origin of words
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Did my teacher make this etymology for もしもし up?
I was reading this question, and realized that I had been told something outlandishly different. To be clear, what I was told didn't change the usage of もしもし to be something different.
I was told ...
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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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Portuguese origin of particle -ね
The particle -ね matches somehow the Portuguese 'né' in form and use (as a request for agreement).
Since there is proven historical contact between Portugal and Japan and proven influx of Portuguese ...
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Is "フリーマーケット" sometimes assumed to be derived from "Free"?
Is the term "フリーマーケット" sometimes assumed to be derived from, or meaning, "Free market", as opposed to "Flea market"? (That is, having a false etymology)
There is a phrase "Free market" in English, ...
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Why is 閉ざす the "-す form" of 閉じる when the classical form was kami nidan 閉づ?
This has really confused me for a long time. Considering the fact that the Classical Japanese form of the verb 閉じる is 閉づ, the expected reflex of 閉ざす should be *閉だす; 閉じる is actually etymologically 閉ぢる ...
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Etymology of 制度
What is the rough etymology of 制度 (system / organization)? Or how do 制 (system) and 度 (degrees / capacity) come together to form the meaning of system / organization? Specifically, how does 度 (...
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Is あらまあ linked to Malay "alamak", and which came first?
A popular theory claims that that the Japanese expression あらまあ is directly related to the Malay alamak (pronounced more or less identically, since the "k" is just a glottal stop), with speculation ...
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Verbs Which Change Form but not Meaning
I have noticed that there are a number of verbs in Japanese which have common alternative forms, especially potential form, but these forms have identical meanings.
One of these is 焼く, which appears ...
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先生 character etymology
先 looks like a teacher holding a pen, and 生 looks like a person sitting cross-legged with a pen, learning. maybe the symbols together mean someone who instructs someone else. Was this originally a ...
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Do ふえる and へる have a common etymology?
I was reviewing my Anki cards and it said that 減少 and 増加 are antonyms. Now, for extra practice, I try to give at least one kunyomi reading to each kanji. Then it occured to me that ふえる and へる sounded ...
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Can 中村 mean "villager" (person)? [closed]
Does or can 中村 mean "villager" (person) or only "middle village" (place name)? Would alternate Kanji make a difference in meaning, i.e., 中邑 仲村 仲邑 ? Thank you.
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Reading of 管 as in "かん" vs "くだ" and its meaning regarding those two readings
こんにちは。
After reading jisho, here's some of the information that I found:
管 (kun: くだ on: カン)
Interestingly, if you search the details, jisho lists 管 read as 【カン】 and
【かん】, even though the ...
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Could ベビーカー be derived from "Baby carriage"?
Most etymologies I've come across for "ベビーカー" assume that it's wasei eigo based on a combination of "baby" (ベビー) and "car" (the "カー" part of "マイカー"). For example, the Japanese edition of Wikipedia ...
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What's the verified etymology of 撥音 and 撥ねる音?
The most popular explanation for the terms 撥音 hatsuon and 撥ねる音 haneru-on is that the kana used to spell this sound, ん and ン, are drawn with an "upsweeping" or "jumped-up" terminal. ...
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