百合

Chinese

		hundred	to close; to gather; to join to close; to gather; to join; to fit; all; together
simp. and trad. (百合)		百	合

Etymology

Named “hundred-union”, for the numerous segmented and overlapping scales on the bulb of the lily. The lily is traditionally a propitious sign of a blissful, long-lasting marriage; see the idiom 百年好合 (bǎiniánhǎohé).

The Taiwanese Min Nan pronunciation iú-lih is borrowed from Japanese 百合 (yuri).

The sense “yuri; lesbian” is a semantic loan and a orthographic borrowing from Japanese 百合 (yuri).

Noun

(deprecated template usage) 百合

1. lily (flower or bulb)
2. (ACG slang) yuri; lesbian

Synonyms

• (lily flower):

Dialectal synonyms of 百合花 (“lily flower”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		百合花, 百合
Northeastern Mandarin	Taiwan	百合花, 百合
Cantonese	Hong Kong	百合花, 百合
Gan	Pingxiang	百合
Hakka	Miaoli (N. Sixian)	叭哈花
	Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian)	喇叭花
	Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu)	打碗花
	Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu)	喇叭花
	Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping)	打碗花, 喇叭花
	Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an)	喇叭花
Huizhou	Jixi	糖球花
Northern Min	Jian'ou	百合花, 百合
Southern Min	Tainan	鈴鐺仔花 GT
Southern Pinghua	Nanning (Tingzi)	百合花
Wu	Shanghai	百合花, 百合
	Suzhou	百合
Note	GT - General Taiwanese (no specific region identified)

• (lily bulb): (Min Nan) 國白／国白

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (百合):

• → Korean: 백합(百合) (baekhap)
• → Vietnamese: bách hợp (百合)

(deprecated template usage)

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Japanese

Kanji in this term
百	合
ゆり
Grade: 1	Grade: 2
jukujikun

百合 (yuri): A lily plant.

Etymology

Probably the nominalization of the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of classical verb 揺る (yuru, “to sway, to swing, to wave back and forth”), from the way that lilies tend to grow tall and sway in the breeze.

The spelling is an orthographic borrowing from Chinese 百合 (bǎihé), indicating the way that lily bulbs cluster together—合わす (awasu, “to gather, combine”)—in large numbers, as in 百 (hyaku, literally “hundred”).

For information on the slang for homosexuality, see Yuri (genre).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ゆり [yùrí] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [jɯ̟ɾʲi]

Noun

百合(ゆり) or 百合(ユリ) • (yuri) 

1. (botany) lily
2. a style of 襲の色目 (kasane no irome, “color scheme of layering garments”), featuring a red outer layer and a reddish-gold inner layer, and worn in summer (from the way the color scheme resembles the coloration of the petals of certain varieties of lily)
3. (slang) yuri, manga or other media depicting attraction, romance or sexual relationship between women, usually lesbians

   • だったらむしろ、レズビアンや百合(ゆり)のほうが楽(たの)しめるというわけなんです。男(だん)性(せい)が百合(ゆり)に萌(も)えるのは、性(せい)に対(たい)するファンタジーなのかもしれません。

     Dattara mushiro, rezubian ya yuri no hō ga tanoshimeru to iu wake nan desu. Dansei ga yuri ni moeru no wa, sei ni taisuru fantajī na no kamoshiremasen.

     If that's the case, it seems to be the reason that they enjoy lesbians or yuri. That a man fancies yuri, it is likely a sexual fantasy.

Derived terms

• 笹(ササ)百合(ユリ) (sasayuri, “the Japanese or bamboo lily, ”)

Descendants

• → English: yuri
• → Chinese: 百合 (bǎihé, “yuri”)
• → Korean: 백합(百合) (baekhap, “yuri”), 유리 (yuri, “yuri”)

Proper noun

百合(ゆり) • (Yuri) 

1. a female given name

References

• Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

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Korean

Hanja in this term
百	合

Noun

百合 • (baekhap) (hangeul 백합)

1. hanja form^? of 백합 (“lily”)

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Vietnamese

chữ Hán Nôm in this term
百	合

Noun

百合

1. chữ Hán form of bách hợp (“Lilium pumilum”).