老子

Japanese

Kanji in this term
老	子

Etymology 1

Compound of 老い (oi, “stem of verb oiru, to become old”) +‎ 子 (ko, “child”). The ko changes to go due to rendaku (連濁).

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA: [o̞igo̞], [o̞iŋo̞]

Noun

老子 (hiragana おいご, romaji oigo)

1. a child of older parents

Synonyms

• 年寄り子 (としよりこ, toshiyoriko)

Etymology 2

From Middle Chinese.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi
• IPA: [ro̞ːɕi]

Proper noun

老子 (hiragana ろうし, romaji Rōshi, historical hiragana らうし)

1. Laozi, a philosopher of ancient China
2. the Tao Te Ching, a book of philosophy supposedly written by Laozi

External links

• 老子 on the Japanese Wikipedia.ja.Wikipedia
• Laozi on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Laozi
• 老子道徳経 on the Japanese Wikipedia.ja.Wikipedia:老子道徳経
• Tao Te Ching on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Tao Te Ching

Etymology 3

From the English pronunciation of Lao-Tsu, from Mandarin 老子 (Lǎozi).

Pronunciation

• IPA: [ɺ̠äo̞t͡sɯᵝː]

Proper noun

老子 (katakana ラオツー, romaji Raotsū)

1. Laozi, a philosopher of ancient China

---

Mandarin

simpl. and trad.
老子

Proper noun

老子 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin Lǎozǐ)

1. Laozi

老子

Pronoun

老子 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin lǎozi)

1. (slang) I, me

Noun

老子 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin lǎozi)

1. (slang) father
2. (dated or regional) son; young man (i.e. a mother scolding her son)
   • 1918, Lu Xun, A Madman's Diary

     最奇怪的是昨天街上的那個女人，打他兒子，嘴裏說道：「老子呀！我要咬你幾口纔出氣！」他眼睛卻看着我。

     The strangest was a woman on the street yesterday. She was hitting her son. From her mouth, I heard her say, "Young man! I'd like to take a few bites out of you just to vent my anger!" Yet, her eyes were fixed on me.

References

• 老子 on the Mandarin Wikipedia.zh.Wikipedia
• Laozi on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Laozi