0

Why is こころ + みる the word used to say "to try/attempt"? What is it supposed to be saying as an idiom?

Tirous
  • 3,394
  • 4
  • 19
  • 47
  • 2
    That's the etymological meaning of 試みる, but I've never seen it written as 心見る and dictionaries suggest that writing it that way is considered a mistake. –  Jun 09 '17 at 00:57
  • 1
    There are two different questions here. The first is "why does the Japanese compound *kokoro-miru* mean 'to attempt'". The second is "why is the Japanese compound *kokoro-miru* written with a single Chinese character as 試みる, rather than 心見る". Both questions are already answered in the marked duplicate (the etymology is "to check out the essence of something"; and the orthography is because the Japanese compound *kokoro-miru* was translated by a single Chinese word, *shì* 試). – melissa_boiko Jun 09 '17 at 11:35

1 Answers1

1

When I did a sentence search on jisho.org for こころみる, there were several sentences for the 試みる version and none for the 心見る version, suggesting that it is likely antiquated to the point of being irrelevant in modern Japanese. In other words, if it's not a usage that you're likely to see or to use, does it matter where it came from? But I guess if you're just wondering for the sake of curiosity, perhaps a native speaker with a deep knowledge of outdated kanji could explain.

TFlo83
  • 792
  • 5
  • 7
  • http://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%93%E3%81%93%E3%82%8D%E3%81%BF%E3%82%8B u sure? It lists it under alternative forms. – Tirous Jun 08 '17 at 21:47
  • 1
    Yes, it's listed under alternate forms in the definition, but when you search for sentences containing 心見る, there are none, suggesting that it is no longer commonly used. – TFlo83 Jun 08 '17 at 22:24