台詞

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See also: 臺詞 and 台词

Chinese

For pronunciation and definitions of 台詞 – see 臺詞 (“lines”).
(This term is a variant traditional form of 臺詞).

Japanese

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
台 詞
せりふ
Grade: 2 Grade: 6
jukujikun
Alternative spelling
臺詞 (kyūjitai)

Probably originally a compound of 競り (seri, “hawking, calling out in a loud voice”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 競る (seru), “to hawk, to call out in a loud voice”) +‎ 言ふ (ifu, ancient spelling of modern 言う (iu), “to say”):[1]

*/seri ipu/ → */seripu/ → /seriɸu/ → /serifu/

Alternatively, the final -fu may have come instead from 合ふ (afu), ancient form of modern 合う (au, “to do something together”) (thus, a doublet of 競り合う):[1]

*/seri apu/ → */seripu/ → /seriɸu/ → /serifu/

The kanji spelling is from the synonymous Middle Chinese-derived daishi reading below.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

台詞(せりふ) or 台詞(セリフ) • (serifu) 

  1. a performer’s lines
  2. one’s words, one’s line
    「お前(まえ)なんでここに？」「こっちのセリフだ。」
    “Omae nande koko ni?”“Kotchi no serifu da.”
    "Why are you here?" "I should be the one asking you." (lit. "That's my line.")
  3. a cliché
  4. a discussion
  5. making a payment
Derived terms
Derived terms
Idioms

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
台 詞
だい
Grade: 2 		し
Grade: 6
goon kan'on
Alternative spelling
臺詞 (kyūjitai)

From Middle Chinese 臺詞 (MC doj zi). Uses the goon reading for the first character and the kan'on reading for the second character, suggesting either a pronunciation shift within Japanese, or influence from a Chinese dialect or later pronunciation.

Pronunciation

Noun

台(だい)詞(し) • (daishi) 

  1. Same as せりふ (serifu) above

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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