夜這い

Japanese

Kanji in this term
夜	這
よ Grade: 2 (ateji)	は > ば Jinmeiyō (ateji)
kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
婚い

Etymology

From Old Japanese. Derived from 呼ばひ (yobai), the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of classical verb 呼ばふ (yobau, “to court a woman”), a combination of 呼(よ)ば (yoba), the 未(み)然(ぜん)形(けい) (mizenkei, “irrealis form”) of verb 呼(よ)ぶ (yobu, “to call”) + auxiliary verb ふ (fu, “indicating repetition or ongoing state”).

The spelling, composed of 夜 (yo, “night”) + 這い (hai, “crawling”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 這う (hau), “to crawl”), literally “night crawling”, is an example of phonetic ateji (当(あ)て字(じ)), with possibly some influence from folk etymology.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [jo̞ba̠i]
• (Tokyo) よばい [yòbáꜜì] (Nakadaka – [2])

Noun

夜(よ)這(ば)い • (yobai) ^{←よばひ (yobafi)?}

1. (historical) night-visiting, a man visiting a woman at night for sexual relations
2. (historical) a proposal of marriage, a courtship

   Synonym: 求婚 (kyūkon)

Derived terms

• 夜這人(よばいびと) (yobaibito, “a suitor”)
• 夜這星(よばいぼし) (yobaiboshi, “a meteor”)
• (classical) さ婚(よば)ひ(い) (sayobai, “marriage proposal”)
• 婚文(よばいぶみ) (yobaibumi, “a letter proposing marriage, a love letter”)

Verb

夜(よ)這(ば)いする • (yobai suru) ^{←よばひ (yobafi)?}suru (stem 夜(よ)這(ば)いし (yobai shi), past 夜(よ)這(ば)いした (yobai shita))

1. (of a man) to visit a woman at night to have sexual intercourse

Conjugation

Conjugation of "夜這いする" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs)

Katsuyōkei ("stem forms")
Mizenkei ("imperfective")	夜這いし	よばいし	yobai shi
Ren’yōkei ("continuative")	夜這いし	よばいし	yobai shi
Shūshikei ("terminal")	夜這いする	よばいする	yobai suru
Rentaikei ("attributive")	夜這いする	よばいする	yobai suru
Kateikei ("hypothetical")	夜這いすれ	よばいすれ	yobai sure
Meireikei ("imperative")	夜這いせよ¹ 夜這いしろ²	よばいせよ¹ よばいしろ²	yobai seyo¹ yobai shiro²
Key constructions
Passive	夜這いされる	よばいされる	yobai sareru
Causative	夜這いさせる 夜這いさす	よばいさせる よばいさす	yobai saseru yobai sasu
Potential	夜這いできる	よばいできる	yobai dekiru
Volitional	夜這いしよう	よばいしよう	yobai shiyō
Negative	夜這いしない	よばいしない	yobai shinai
Negative continuative	夜這いせず	よばいせず	yobai sezu
Formal	夜這いします	よばいします	yobai shimasu
Perfective	夜這いした	よばいした	yobai shita
Conjunctive	夜這いして	よばいして	yobai shite
Hypothetical conditional	夜這いすれば	よばいすれば	yobai sureba

¹ Written imperative
² Spoken imperative

Further reading

• “夜^▲這い”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[1] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026