蛍

See also: 螢 and 萤

Translingual

Traditional	螢
Shinjitai	蛍
Simplified	萤

Etymology

Japanese shinjitai character. Simplified from 螢 (炏 → ⺍).

Han character

蛍 (Kangxi radical 142, 虫+5, 11 strokes, cangjie input 火月中一戈 (FBLMI), composition ⿳⺍冖虫)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 1081, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 32983
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): not present, would follow volume 4, page 2845, character 4
• Unihan data for U+86CD

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Chinese

For pronunciation and definitions of 蛍 – see 螢 (“firefly”). (This character is a variant form of 螢).

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Japanese

Shinjitai	蛍
Kyūjitai	螢

Kanji

蛍

(common “Jōyō” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 螢)

Readings

• Go-on: ぎょう (gyō)^{←ぎやう (gyau, historical)}
• Kan-on: けい (kei, Jōyō)^{←けい (kei, historical)←くゑい (kwei, ancient)}
• Kun: ほたる (hotaru, 蛍, Jōyō)

Compounds

• 蛍(けい)光(こう) (keikō, “fluorescence”)
• 蛍(けい)光(こう)灯(とう) (keikōtō, “fluorescent lamp”)
• 蛍(けい)光(こう)染(せん)料(りょう) (keikō senryō, “fluorescent dye”)

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
蛍
ほたる Grade: S
kun’yomi

Alternative spelling
螢 (kyūjitai)

From Old Japanese. Appears in the Man'yōshú, compiled some time after 759 CE. Ultimate derivation unknown.

• The initial ho element is almost certainly the ancient form of 火 (hi, “fire”), which appears as ho in compounds such as 炎 (honō, “flame”, originally from ho no ho) or 火屋 (hoya, “lamp chimney”).
• Various theories exist regarding the taru portion. This may be from classical verb 垂る (taru, “to hang down, to droop”, in reference to a firefly's posterior; modern form 垂れる (tareru)), or a vowel shift from verb 照る (teru, “to shine”).

Noun

1. a firefly

   火(ほ)垂(た)るの墓(はか)

   Hotaru no Haka

   Grave of the Fireflies

   • 1991 July 15, Mitsuru Adachi, “[魔](ま)[法](ほう)の[粉](こな)の[巻](まき) [Magical Powder]”, in (deprecated template usage) [虹色とうがらし](ＮＩＪＩ－ＩＲＯ　ＴＯＨＧＡＲＡＳＨＩ) [Rainbow-Colored Chilis], volume 4 (fiction), Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN, page 30:

     しってるか、ホタルってのは虫(むし)だぞ。

     Shitteru ka, hotaru tte no wa mushi da zo.

     Did you not know fireflies were insects too?

Derived terms

• 蛍(ほたる)石(いし) (hotaruishi, “fluorite”)

Proper noun

蛍(ほたる) or 蛍(proper) • (hotaru or proper) [[Category:Japanese
|ほたる]]

1. a female given name

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
蛍
けい Grade: S
kan’on

Alternative spelling
螢 (kyūjitai)

From Middle Chinese 螢 (MC hweng, “firefly”).

Affix

蛍(けい) • (kei) 

1. used in various compounds to refer to fluorescence

Proper noun

蛍(けい) or 蛍(proper) • (kei or proper) [[Category:Japanese
|けい]]

1. a female given name

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Korean

Hanja

蛍 • (hyeong) (hangeul 형, revised hyeong, McCune–Reischauer hyŏng, Yale hyeng)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.