桜ん坊
Japanese
Kanji in this term | |
---|---|
桜 | 坊 |
さくら Grade: 5 |
ぼう Grade: S |
yutōyomi |
Alternative spellings |
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櫻ん坊 (kyūjitai) 桜桃 |
Etymology
/sakuranbau/ → /sakuranbɔː/ → /sakuranboː/
Etymology unclear. Leading theories include:
- Compound of 桜 (sakura, “cherry, cherry tree”) + の (no, possessive particle) + 坊 (bō, “boy, monk”, in reference to the tradition of shaven heads, indicating the smooth skin of the cherry fruit)
- Compound of 桜 (sakura, “cherry, cherry tree”) + 桃 (momo, “peach”, in reference to fruit in general; with a phonetic shift from /m/ to /b/ and shift from /bobo/ to /boː/)
Given the historical reading of sakuranbau, matching the historical bau reading of 坊, the initial derivation seems more likely.
The sakuranbō represents a regular historical shift from older sakuranbau. Sakuranbō with the long ō has been somewhat superseded in modern Japanese by the shortened reading sakuranbo.
The alternative 桜桃 spelling is an example of jukujikun, from Middle Chinese 櫻桃 (ʔˠɛŋ dɑu).
Pronunciation
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Noun
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- (fruit) cherry (mostly used for Japanese cherries)
- Synonym: (mostly used for non-Japanese cherries) チェリー (cherī)
Related terms
- 桜 (sakura): cherry tree