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I saw a tweet that said

要は日本酒が呑みたい

And my dictionary translated 呑む as 'to drink', with 飲む as the default spelling and 呑む as an alternate form.

What is the difference between 飲む and 呑む?

Darcinon
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Holly
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1 Answers1

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Maybe you know that to say "to take a pill" in Japanese you would say 丸薬をのむ. (I did not put the kanji of のむ intentionally).

飲む is used to say to drink. I mean, to absorb a liquid through your mouth like "to drink water, syrup, beer, ..."

On the other side 呑む is used more to mean to swallow. It can be figurative or not. 涙｛なみだ｝を呑｛の｝む (to refrain one's anger), 固唾｛かたず｝を呑む(to hold one's breath because of anxiety/fear), 息を呑む (to gasp). 町は闇に呑まれた (the village was in the dark).

Thus, the "right" spelling of 丸薬をのむ is with 呑む but today everyone uses 飲む (because 呑 is not part of the 常用漢字).

Darcinon
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永劫回帰
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    I find it interesting that *wonton* in Chinese is spelled 雲呑: "cloud swallowing". Wonderfully poetic. – Eiríkr Útlendi Nov 14 '15 at 01:40
  • ...and contrary to explanations like [this](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1312052823), 呑む is widely used for sake drinking like here in [呑みきり](http://www.gokyo-sake.co.jp/tayori/22.html) and 立ち呑み all around towns – macraf Nov 14 '15 at 01:48
  • ...and it's hard to claim it is recent change, because for example of [黒田節](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%BB%92%E7%94%B0%E7%AF%80) – macraf Nov 14 '15 at 01:51
  • @macraf that is true that 呑む is also used for drinking sake but that is the only beverage I know for which 呑む is used and I preferred to omit it. – 永劫回帰 Nov 14 '15 at 01:55
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    A couple more examples: 鵜{う}呑{の}み and 丸{まる}呑{の}み –  Nov 14 '15 at 04:02
  • As seen in the tweet in the question, it is true that some people do use 呑む to mean 酒を飲む these days (and they're not using 呑む for 薬 and 固唾!). [Novelists about 100 years ago mainly used (酒を)飲む](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/172444/example/m0u/) even though there was no 常用漢字表 yet. I don't know why, but maybe recent people were influenced by izakaya ads? – naruto Nov 14 '15 at 07:49
  • @naruto Interesting, I will try to get a hand on a 漢字漢和辞典 to clarify this. But I don't really get why Izakaya would write 呑む instead of 飲む. Maybe it's more hype? – 永劫回帰 Nov 14 '15 at 08:02
  • Maybe. Someone might have thought swallowing sake is more suitable than just drinking sake, as an ad :-) – naruto Nov 14 '15 at 08:22