All Questions
Tagged with i-adjectives etymology
12 questions
5
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1
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255
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Why did 黄 not have an adjectival form in Old Japanese?
A lot of online articles have claimed that Japanese "originally" only had four words for colors: 白, 黒, 赤, 青. They also argue that, since only these four have both noun forms and 形容詞 forms (...
- 1,380
5
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1
answer
617
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む verbs and corresponding ましい adjectives
In studying words like 羨ましい and 勇ましい, I've noticed that there are almost always corresponding (mostly transitive) む verbs:
羨む -> 羨ましい
勇む -> 勇ましい (transitive version seems to be archaic)
好む -> ...
- 391
5
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2
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764
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Connection between 〜い adjectives and 〜く verbs?
The following pairs of inflections got me thinking a little bit.
〜く verb plain/te, for example: 働く・働いて
〜い adjective plain/nai, for example: 甘い・甘くない
Both of these suggest that there is perhaps some ...
- 467
2
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1
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307
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〜く＋あります inflections?
In this post, it was verified that indeed the origin of the い-adjective ending 〜かった stems as a fusion of the ending 〜く and the inflection あった of ある (that is, 〜かった comes from 〜くあった). This makes me ...
- 467
9
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2
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2k
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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 ...
- 467
2
votes
1
answer
177
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Understanding the connection between adverbs and adjective negation
い-adjectives negate in the following way.
「大{おお}きい」→「大きくない」
How I've always interpreted process is that we're basically changing the adjective 「大きい」 into the adverb form 「大きく」 and then tacking on 「...
- 467
4
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1
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612
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Where does っぱい derive from?
As it says in the title, I'm hoping to find out where the adjective ending -っぱい comes from (like in 酸っぱい 'sour'). Is it related to -っぽい (X-like, X-ish) at all? I can't seem to find an etymology for it ...
- 77
2
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1
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3k
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Why does 嫌い looks so much like an i adjective, when it is a na adjective?
I tried to look for this answer but could not find it so...
Why is that 嫌い looks so much like an i-adjective? I might be wrong, but most i-adjectives seem follow this path:
Kanji + い or Kanji + ...
2
votes
1
answer
229
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かたくな etymology and relation to 固い
The words 頑な{かたくな} (na-adjective, "stubborn") and 固い{かたい} (i-adjective, "hard" or "stubborn") sound similar and have a similar meaning. I was thinking if these words are related to each other through ...
- 3,099
9
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2
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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」...
- 16.5k
17
votes
1
answer
987
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i-adjectives that end in a 〜ない which doesn't seem to be 〜無{な}い
I noticed there are many 形容詞{けいようし} (i-adjectives) that end in 〜ない, where the な is not part of the kanji, and doesn't seem to have the meaning 無い.
Examples:
危{あぶ}ない means "dangerous", while 危 means "...
- 16.5k
8
votes
1
answer
667
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What is the origin of the word 無{な}し?
The word なし, of course, means ない, and it is defined as such in dictionaries. But why does this word exist? Are there even any situations where you can say なし but you can't say ない? Is it a remnant of ...
- 18.5k