Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [ateji]

当て字. Kanji assigned to words based on their sound rather than their meaning.

33 questions
21
votes
3 answers

Why is 「昨夜」 pronounced as 「ゆうべ」 {yuube} and 「今日」 as 「きょう」 {kyou}?

「ゆう」 is neither the kun'yomi nor on'yomi of 「昨」 and 「べ」 is not a pronunciation of 「夜」 either. The same can be said about the pronunciation 「きょう」 for 「今日」. So how come the pronunciations of the two words are like those? If they are special, what was…
Lukman
  • 19,547
  • 16
  • 91
  • 193
18
votes
1 answer

What does さようなら (左様なら) have to do with "left"?

What is the relationship between 左様なら and 左? I assume there's some idiomatic meaning for "left" but how does it fit?
mmdanziger
  • 707
  • 1
  • 4
  • 10
14
votes
2 answers

What is the etymology of [山葵]{わさび}?

I know that "わさび" 'wasabi' can also be written using kanji as "山葵" and that these two characters mean respectively "mountain" and "hollyhock", but hollyhock doesn't seem at first glance to be related. So are the hollyhock and wasabi plants related…
hippietrail
  • 15,025
  • 29
  • 94
  • 143
13
votes
2 answers

What is the correct veritable meaning of 水無月 and 神無月?

This question is the result of a conversation with Chocolate in chat, and also this Japanese calendar I have that lists the months according to the traditional Japanese names. For some reason, there exists some discrepancy about the literal meaning…
Chris
  • 6,503
  • 3
  • 28
  • 73
12
votes
2 answers

What is the etymology of shamisen (三味線)?

The instrument clearly has 3 (三) strings (線), but where does 味 exactly fit in?
Mathieu Bouville
  • 2,146
  • 5
  • 19
10
votes
2 answers

Significance of the kanji 茶 in the set phrase 滅茶滅茶{めちゃめちゃ} / 目茶目茶{めちゃめちゃ}

While having fun looking up random words in my dictionary software, I found out that the phrase "めちゃめちゃ", which is often used in colloquial sentences like "めちゃめちゃかわいい" has two kanji variants: 滅茶滅茶 目茶目茶 For the first variant, 滅茶滅茶, I can imagine…
Lukman
  • 19,547
  • 16
  • 91
  • 193
9
votes
3 answers

うるさい written as 五月蝿い

This is a follow-up question to Does うるさい have a "negative" connotation. I've seen うるさい written as 五月蝿い. 現代では、is this form used often / at all? What does this have to do with flies (蝿【はえ】) in May? Do a lot of flies hatch in May due to excessive…
istrasci
  • 43,365
  • 4
  • 104
  • 251
7
votes
2 answers

Reading 男 or 女 as ひと

Why is it that in Japanese sentence one sees 男 or 女 with furigana that says ひと? Furigana is supposed to help clarify the meaning of a kanji character, but using ひと doesn't seem to help clarify anything. So what's the point of doing that?
language hacker
  • 5,025
  • 6
  • 30
  • 52
6
votes
1 answer

Common 四{よ}字{じ}熟{じゅく}語{ご} that use/are 当{あ}て字{じ}

Are there any commonly used known 四{よ}字{じ}熟{じゅく}語{ご}　that use/are 当{あ}て字{じ} besides the following? Just crossed my mind, and now I'm curious. 滅{め}茶{ちゃ}苦{く}茶{ちゃ}, 夜{よ}露{ろ}死{し}苦{く}, 無{む}理{り}矢{や}理{り}
istrasci
  • 43,365
  • 4
  • 104
  • 251
6
votes
2 answers

Why is the kanji of idiot written with the kanji for "horse" and "deer" together?

I'm learning Japanese, but I'm a beginner, and I need to understand why this kanji is a compound of the kanji for "horse" and "deer": 馬鹿 = idiot 馬 = horse 鹿 = deer Why?
Pena Pintada
  • 183
  • 1
  • 6
6
votes
2 answers

Does the use of 百足 as ateji for ムカデ come from calquing "centipede" (or a cognate)?

The English word "centipede" refers to basically the same type of disgusting creepy-crawly arthropod as the Japanese ムカデ. Sometimes, ムカデ is written in kanji as 百足. This is an obvious case of ateji (you would never read 百 in isolation as ム or ムカ, nor…
senshin
  • 5,615
  • 28
  • 69
5
votes
1 answer

Are both spellings for ふけ (fuke) "dandruff" ateji? If not what's actually going on?

The other day after washing my hair I decided to add the Japanese word for "dandruff" to my vocabulary. It turns out to be an interesting word. It has only one pronunciatation, ふけ (fuke), but two kanji spellings and I got the impression from WWWJDIC…
hippietrail
  • 15,025
  • 29
  • 94
  • 143
4
votes
2 answers

Is "豪斯多拉利" an ateji way to write "Australia"?

Several years ago I invested some time and energy digging up more ways to write "Australia" in Japanese than I ever expected would exist: オーストラリア is the usual spelling these days 濠太剌利 is a rare old ateji I believe 濠洲 was a shorter ateji before the…
hippietrail
  • 15,025
  • 29
  • 94
  • 143
4
votes
3 answers

The logic behind kanji choice for country name ateji

亜米利加【アメリカ】 伊太利亜【イタリア】 独逸【ドイツ】 I know these spellings are rarely used... My question is: Why did they choose exactly these kanji characters for spelling these countries' names? Could they use other kanji characters but with same readings for…
DrStrangeLove
  • 397
  • 4
  • 10
4
votes
1 answer

無茶 - "bad tea" = absurd; unreasonable

I have the following in a Zelda guide book I am translating. It is talking about being faced with a problem and trying various ways to solve it (you know the Zelda games). I am interested in "むちゃな". There is no kanji but I believe it is 無茶な. This is…
VictorySaber
  • 1,829
  • 1
  • 21
  • 28
1
2 3