いつ

Japanese

Etymology 1

Alternative spelling
何時

From Old Japanese. Appears in the Man'yōshū, completed some time after 759 CE.

The presence of other Old Japanese indefinites beginning with い (i) suggests a possible shared root of い (i, possibly “what” or “which”), as in 如何 (ikaga, “how”), 何処 (izuko, “where”), 幾ら (ikura, “how many, how much”).

Likely cognate with eastern Old Japanese word idu (modern idzu or izu, “where”), still used in modern Japanese as part of the word いずれ (izure, “which”).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) いつ [íꜜtsù] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [it͡sɨ]

Pronoun

いつ • (itsu) 

1. when

   いつ日(に)本(ほん)へ来(き)ましたか。

   Itsu nihon e kimashita ka.

   When did you come to Japan?

Usage notes

• This word is usually written in hiragana.
• 何(い)時(つ) (itsu) is more commonly used to mean when in terms of dates or days, while 何(なん)時(じ) (nanji) is more commonly used to mean when in terms of time of day.

Derived terms

• いつか (itsuka): sometime, someday
• いつかそのうち (itsuka sono uchi)
• いつから (itsu kara)
• いつぞや (itsu zo ya)
• いつでも (itsu de mo): at any time
• いつの日(ひ)にか (itsu no hi ni ka)
• いつの間(ま)に (itsu no ma ni)
• いつの間(ま)にか (itsu no ma ni ka)
• いつまで (itsu made)
• いつまでも (itsu made mo): forever, eternally
• いつも (itsu mo): always, all the time

 

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of いつ – see the following entries.

【一】1 [noun] one [noun] the same [affix] one, 1 [affix] first, foremost [affix] group [affix] entirely, wholly [affix] other [affix] merely, only [proper noun] a female given name

【逸】S [noun] (literary) ease, comfort [affix] escape, flee, break loose [affix] leisure, ease [affix] lost, not known in the world [affix] excellent, outstanding

【溢】J [affix] overflow [affix] excessive

【佚】H [noun] (literary) ease [affix] ease; comfort [affix] lost; unknown

(This term, いつ (itsu), is the hiragana spelling of the above terms.) For a list of all kanji read as いつ, see Category:Japanese kanji read as いつ.)