ばらばら

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See also: はらはら

Japanese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Ultimate derivation unclear. Appears from the late 1500s.[1]

Probably originally an onomatopoeia, imitative of the sound of rain or other small things falling in a scattered manner.

Related to root verb ばる (baru), from which ばれる (bareru) derives as the regular mediopassive / intransitive, and ばらす (barasu) derives as the regular causative / transitive. Compare similar verb paradigms with root verb 明く (aku), causative / transitive 明かす (akasu), mediopassive / intransitive 明ける (akeru), Old Japanese 出づ (idu) and modern causative / transitive 出す (dasu), mediopassive / intransitive 出る (deru), Old Japanese 生ゆ (hayu) and modern 生やす (hayasu) and 生える (haeru).

The term ばらばら (barabara) actually appears earliest in texts, starting from the late 1500s, followed by ばれる (bareru) in the late 1600s and ばらす (barasu) in the early 1700s.[1] This suggests the possibility that the adjective / adverb came first, with the verbs then deriving from that.

Possibly related to adjective あばら (abara).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

ばらばら or バラバラ (barabara-na (adnominal ばらばら (barabara na na), adverbial ばらばら (barabara ni ni))

  1. (onomatopoeia) scattered (into separate parts), in disarray, messy, messed up

Inflection[edit]

Adverb[edit]

ばらばら or バラバラ (barabara

  1. (onomatopoeia) continuously
  2. all over, messily, in a messed up manner
  3. evocative of many things moving about at once

Usage notes[edit]

Can be used with adverbial particle (to), or bare without a particle.

May also be spelled optionally in katakana to avoid ambiguity in parsing the start and end of the word in running text.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. 2.0 2.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006) 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN