猿も木から落ちる

Japanese

Alternative spelling
サルも木から落ちる (rare)

Phrase consisting of 猿(さる) (saru, “monkey”) + も (mo, “even, also”) + 木(き) (ki, “tree”) + から (kara, “from”) + 落(お)ちる (ochiru, “to fall”).^[1]^[2]^[3] Literally, “even monkeys fall from trees”.

First cited to a text from 1638.^[4]

(Tokyo) さるも・きから・おちる [sáꜜrù mò kíꜜ kàrà òchíꜜrù] (Atamadaka + Atamadaka + Nakadaka – [1]+[1]+[2])^[2]
IPA^(key): [sa̠ɾɯ̟ mo̞ kʲi ka̠ɾa̠ o̞t͡ɕiɾɯ̟]

猿(さる)も木(き)から落(お)ちる • (saru mo ki kara ochiru)

弘法(こうぼう)にも筆(ふで)の誤(あやま)り (kōbō ni mo fude no ayamari, literally “there are brush mistakes even with Kūkai [a master calligrapher]”)
上手(じょうず)の手(て)から水(みず)が漏(も)れる (jōzu no te kara mizu ga moreru, literally “water leaks [even] from skilled hands”)
河童(かっぱ)の川流(かわなが)れ (kappa no kawanagare, literally “[even] a kappa [water monster] gets washed away by the river”)

^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988), 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (1995), 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN
^ “猿も木から落ちる”, in 日本国語大辞典 [Nihon Kokugo Daijiten]‎^[1] (in Japanese), concise edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2006

“猿も木から落ちる”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[2] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026
Shinmura, Izuru, editor (1998), 広辞苑 [Kōjien] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN