45
votes
Accepted
Is ま (ma) related to ほ (ho) or は (ha) related to よ (yo)? What does adding a bar to the left mean?
Apart from the diacritic-derived characters, hiragana (and kana in general) should be seen as non-reduceable graphical units. They are not derived from simpler functional units. Their formation is ...
- 9,175
40
votes
Why is 一日 'tsuitachi'?
There are a few words in Japanese where the Kanji reading does not match up with the given 音読｛おんよ｝み or 訓読｛くんよ｝み readings. These are 熟字訓｛じゅくじくん｝ particularly if the reading is more important and ...
- 4,458
40
votes
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Does the on'yomi of 輪 (リン) have any relation to the English "ring", or is it a coincidence?
Is there an etymological connection between 輪{リン} as in 車輪{しゃりん} and "ring" in English? Or is this a false cognate?
There are a few things we have to look at to answer this.
Derivation of different ...
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36
votes
Accepted
Is the Japanese word "pan" (パン) related in its origins to the Spanish word "pan"?
According to jisho.org パン has its origins from the Portuguese word “pão”, and was originally written as 麺麭 or 麪包 before being written as パン like it is today.
Is this pure coincidence or do they ...
- 7,139
36
votes
Accepted
Does 左様なら (sayōnara) have Chinese roots?
Let's dive into this etymology.
(My reference, unless otherwise stated, is Shogakukan's 国語大辞典. I've got a dead-tree copy, and there's also a decent online version available for free via Kotobank. ...
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28
votes
Accepted
What is the significance of a repeated radical in a Kanji character?
In general, don't overinterpret repeated components. It's inconsistent and largely a hit-and-miss exercise.
Sometimes they just mean "lots of" the single repeated component, or some extended meaning ...
- 9,175
28
votes
The etymology of 助っ人
Yes, it is 助【すけ】 + 人【ひと】.
助【すけ】 is an obsolete word that means "help; assistance". The currently used verb 助ける is composed of た "hand" + すく "assist".
Noun + 人 was a very productive way to coin a ...
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25
votes
Why does 前 mean "past" in terms of time, but "forward" in terms of direction?
Probably for the same reason that someone who is "ahead" of someone else is both in front of them physically and also arrives earlier. For that matter, the English word "before" also shares the same ...
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24
votes
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Why is a baby called 赤ちゃん？
For the etymology of 赤ちゃん "baby" gogen-allguide.com says the following:
赤ちゃんの語源・由来
新生児の皮膚の色が赤く見えることによる語で、「赤ん坊」や「赤子・赤児」も、皮膚の色に由来する。
民間語源には、赤ちゃんを意味する韓国語「アガ」を語源とする説もある。
しかし、「赤ちゃん」や「赤ん坊」...
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23
votes
No word for "time" until 1871?
I think the word [時間]{じかん} was created in the Meiji era, but the word [時]{とき} is older. So it's definitely wrong that "the Japanese didn't have any interest in clocks (until 1871)".
I searched in an ...
- 5,388
23
votes
Accepted
呉 is an ancient kingdom in china, how did it become "to give" in japanese?
The use of「呉」in「[呉]{く}れる」is an Ateji (kanji that are used phonetically, disregarding its meaning).「呉」was used because「[呉]{くれ}」was a way to say "China", derived from a Japanese word for sunset (「[暮]{く}...
- 9,175
21
votes
Is the Japanese word "pan" (パン) related in its origins to the Spanish word "pan"?
This is not pure coincidence, but the Japanese did not get the word パン
from Spanish, but rather Portuguese. The coincidence part is that Spanish and Portuguese are very closely related languages and ...
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21
votes
Is ま (ma) related to ほ (ho) or は (ha) related to よ (yo)? What does adding a bar to the left mean?
The mighty dROOOze's answer covers the bases. I just wanted to counter with a similar question -- is b related to d related to p? :)
Ultimately, the shapes come from unrelated glyphs (character ...
- 38.6k
20
votes
Accepted
Does every kanji come from a Chinese character? If so, where can I find the origins of a kanji?
Yes, there are a few kanji that were invented purely by Japanese people. Examples are listed in 和製漢字. Some kanji were reverse-imported to Chinese (see: Japanese-coined CJKV characters used outside ...
- 337k
20
votes
Accepted
No word for "time" until 1871?
Addendum
The word 時{とき} is probably the oldest native Japanese word for "time". This term appears in the 万葉集{まんようしゅう} written in Old Japanese and compiled from poems composed from the 300s through ...
- 38.6k
20
votes
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Is 写真 an onomatopoeia?
It's just a coincidence. According to this article, the word 「写真」 and its usage predates photography. The 「真」 part referred to 「人の姿」, so 写真 was used to mean 「姿を写したもの」, and was used for other things ...
- 44.8k
19
votes
Accepted
What is the story behind "peach kanji" 桃?
In many kanji, some of the components do not provide meaning, but only sound.「桃」(On'yomi: とう) is made up of semantic「木」(tree) and phonetic「兆」(On'yomi: ちょう).
Remember: Kanji were created for Chinese ...
- 9,175
19
votes
Accepted
Etymology of レントゲン?
レントゲン is named after the inventor of the X-ray, Wilhelm Röntgen (ウィルヘルム・レントゲン) — who named them X-rays, whence the confusion.
A number of words in Japanese medical terminology were adopted from ...
- 48.4k
18
votes
Accepted
Does 韓国 mean "South Korea" or "Korea as a whole"?
The origin of the word "Korea" is 高麗(こうらい), which was a nation that existed from 918 to 1392. In that era, North Korea and South Korea were one country.
Now, we commonly call South Korea 韓国 ...
- 24.3k
18
votes
Does 韓国 mean "South Korea" or "Korea as a whole"?
I am Japanese.
Generally, Japanese people use...
韓国{かんこく}(kan koku) is South Korea.
北朝鮮{きたちょうせん}（kita tyousen） is North Korea.
大韓民国{だいかんみんこく}（dai kan min koku） is the South Korea's official name.
...
- 188
18
votes
Accepted
Which language レシート is adapted from?
Derivation of レシート
Numerous dictionaries state that レシート is from English receipt. See, for instance, the Dajisen and Daijirin entries visible here at Kotobank (in Japanese), or here at Wiktionary (...
- 38.6k
18
votes
Accepted
Why does the word for "surgery" 外科 have the 外 kanji?
外科【げか】 stands in contrast to 内科【ないか】. While 内科【ないか】 has the straightforwardly corresponding term "internal medicine" in English, I do not think the term "external medicine" corresponding to 外科【げか】 ...
- 38.6k
18
votes
Accepted
Is reasonable to assume that the 食 in 月食/日食 can be interpreted as the sun/moon being "eaten" during an eclipse?
Rather than interpreting「食」as its original meaning eaten, it is probably more accurate to interpret it for its secondary meaning that developed in Old Chinese: wear away, corrode, damage [something]. ...
- 9,175
17
votes
Etymology of 見舞い
まう has a core meaning of "turn around and around". This word is actually the root of the modern verb 回【まわ】る, and in the compound 見【み】舞【ま】う and its derivational noun form 見【み】舞【ま】い, it's the older "...
- 38.6k
17
votes
Accepted
How did 象【しょう】 ( ≈かたち、 すがた、ようす) and 象【ぞう】 (どうぶつ) get to be written with the same kanji?
To start off, the kanji「象」is uncontroversially derived from a picture of an elephant, directly referring to the word「[象]{ぞう}」.
商甲前3・31.3合集10222西周金師湯父鼎集成2780秦簡為吏之道17睡虎地秦簡今楷
In Ancient China, people ...
- 9,175
16
votes
Accepted
Does the etymology of 星 suggest the japanese/chinese knew the sun was a star?
No, because「星」was not the original character for the word meaning star.
「星」was originally written「晶」:
These are oracle bone script samples, and by that stage stars were already characterised as ...
- 9,175
16
votes
Is 写真 an onomatopoeia?
No, it's not.
Wikipedia says:
日本語の「写真」という言葉は、中国語の「真を写したもの」からである
Japanese "写真" comes from the Chinese meaning "Copy/reproduction(写) of the reality/truth(真)"
Source is 『日本語源広辞典』(...
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