| Kanji in this term | ||
|---|---|---|
| 天 | 鵞 | 絨 |
| てん Grade: 1 |
が Hyōgaiji |
じゅう Hyōgaiji |
| 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The kanji spelling and on'yomi of tengajū are not used much in modern Japanese, and have been superseded by the borrowed term ビロード.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 | Hyōgaiji | Hyōgaiji |
| 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”). 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.