| Kanji in this term | ||
|---|---|---|
| 天 | 鵞 | 絨 |
| てん Grade: 1 |
が Hyōgai |
じゅう Hyōgai |
| on'yomi | ||
The 1734 work 本朝世事綺談 (Honchō Seji Kidan, “Embellished Tales of Everyday Japan”; also listed as 本朝世事談綺, with the last two characters swapped) describes this kanji spelling as arising from how velvet shines and shimmers in a way reminiscent of a swan's plumage: 天鵞 (tenga, “swan”, obsolete) + 絨 (jū, “thick fabric”).
The kanji spelling and on'yomi of tengajū are not used much in modern Japanese, and have been superseded by the borrowed term ビロード.
| Kanji in this term | ||
|---|---|---|
| 天 | 鵞 | 絨 |
| ビロード | ||
| Grade: 1 | Hyōgai | Hyōgai |
| jukujikun | ||
| Alternative spelling |
|---|
| ビロード |
The spelling is from the tengajū reading, ultimately from Chinese. The reading ビロード (birōdo) is from Portuguese veludo (“velvet”).[2][1] The term was borrowed when Portuguese traders and missionaries first introduced velvet to Japan in the 1500s.
| For pronunciation and definitions of 天鵞絨 – see the following entry. | ||
| ||
| (This term, 天鵞絨, is an alternative spelling (rare, archaic) of the above term.) |
The katakana spelling ビロード is more common for this term.