強い

Japanese

Etymology 1

From Old Japanese. Found in the Nihon Shoki of 720 CE. In turn from Proto-Japonic *tuyə. Cognate with Miyako 強 (tsū), Okinawan 強ーさん (chūsan).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) つよ​い (Nakadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Adjective

強(つよ)い • (tsuyoi) -i (adverbial 強(つよ)く (tsuyoku))

1. strong, durable, powerful
   • 2006 April 15, Nobuyuki Anzai, “ＡＫＴ(アクト).139(ひゃくさんじゅうきゅう)／　ウォーゲーム最(さい)終(しゅう)決(けっ)戦(せん)　アランＶＳ(バーサス).ハロウィン②(に)”, in MÄR(メル) MÄRCHEN AWAKENS ROMANCE (MÄR(メル) MÄRCHEN AWAKENS ROMANCE), volume 13 (fiction), Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN, page 153:

     弱(よわ)い奴(やつ)が強(つよ)い奴(やつ)の犠(ぎ)牲(せい)になるのは必(ひつ)然(ぜん)なんだ

     Yowai yatsu ga tsuyoi yatsu no gisei ni naru no wa hitsuzen na n da

     It’s inevitable that the weak fall prey to the strong

2. strong, competent, good

   数(すう)字(じ)に強(つよ)い

   sūji ni tsuyoi

   good at figures

3. high tolerance, resilient

   雨(あめ)に強(つよ)い

   ame ni tsuyoi

   resilient to rain

Inflection

Synonyms

• (competent): 得(え)手(て) (ete), 得(とく)意(い) (tokui), 有(ゆう)能(のう) (yūnō)

Antonyms

• 弱(よわ)い (yowai, “weak”)

Etymology 2

From Old Japanese. Appears in the Nihon Shoki, c. CE 720. Ultimately from Proto-Japonic *kƏpa.

Cognate with 怖い (kowai, “scary, frightening”), apparently from the sense of freezing from fright. Likely also cognate with other terms beginning with ko- and related to senses of hard, stiff, such as 凝る (koru, “to stiffen”), 凍ゆ (koyu, “to freeze, to become frozen”, classical) → modern 凍える (kogoeru).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) こわ​い (Nakadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Adjective

強(こわ)い • (kowai) ^{←こはい (kofai)?}-i (adverbial 強(こわ)く (kowaku))

1. hard, tough, stiff
2. stubborn

Inflection

Etymology 3

Verb

強(し)い • (shii) 

1. imperfective and stem (or continuative) forms of 強いる (shiiru)

References