𩸽

Translingual

Han character

𩸽 (Kangxi radical 195, 魚+7, 18 strokes, composition ⿰魚花)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 1473, character 27
• Unihan data for U+29E3D

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Japanese

Glyph origin

A 国字 (kokuji, “Japanese-coined character”), combining the radical for 魚 (“fish”) with the character for 花 (“flower”).

Kanji

𩸽

(Hyōgai kanji)

Readings

• Kun: ほっけ (hokke, 𩸽)

Etymology

𩸽 (hokke): an Arabesque greenling / Okhotsk atka mackerel in a tank.

Kanji in this term
𩸽
ほっけ Hyōgai
kun'yomi

Unknown. Various possibilities.

• According to legend, the first Japanese person to catch this fish was Buddhist monk Nichiji in the late 1290s, and he named it hokke after the 法華 (Hokke, “Lotus Sutra”).
• May be a shortening of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ainu トドホッケ (todo hotke, “sea lions lie down”), the original Ainu name of 椴法華村 (Todohokke Mura, “Todohokke Village”), a village on the coast of Hokkaido where legend tells that Nichiji first caught this fish.
• May be a borrowing from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ainu ホッケ (hotke, “to lie down”), possibly from the way that the fish sometimes appears to be lying on the bottom.

Considering that the fish is native to the waters off northern Japan where the Ainu were once prevalent, an Ainu derivation seems most likely.

Alternative forms

• 魶, 鰚, 鱲

Noun

𩸽(ほっけ) or 𩸽(ホッケ) • (hokke) 

1. a type of fish: , common names Arabesque greenling and Okhotsk atka mackerel

Usage notes

This kanji appears to have been coined in Japan (kokuji). It is also extremely rare even in Japanese. The alternative kanji spellings are also rare.

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as ホッケ. This is also the most common spelling in general contexts.

References

• Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

Further reading

• Etymology entry for ホッケ at Japan Dictionary: http://nihonjiten.com/data/45707.html