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彼女. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
彼女, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
彼女 in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Japanese
Etymology
First appears in writing in the late Edo period as a compound of 彼の (kano, ano, “that”) + 女 (onna, “woman”) with the reading kano onna or ano onna, simply meaning “that woman”. The kanojo reading arose by replacing the kun'yomi reading of onna for the second character with its on'yomi of jo. The first written appearance of the kanojo reading is in 1876, in the 改正画引小学読本 (Kaisei Gakubiki Shōgaku Dokuhon, “Revised Stroke-ordered Elementary-school Reader”). The first clear use of this term as a pronoun is around 1888, arising out of influence from Western works. The kanojo reading became more common and replaced kano onna and ano onna during the Taishō period (1912-1926).
Pronunciation
Pronoun
彼女 • (kanojo) ←かのぢよ (kanodyo)?
- (formal) Female third-person singular pronoun; she, her
- 彼氏彼女の事情
- Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō
- His and Her Circumstances
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- 「彼女はぼくの『宇宙開拓史』に興味を示した」
- “Kanojo wa boku no ‘Uchū Kaitakushi’ ni kyōmi o shimeshita”
- “She showed interest in my ‘History of Cosmic Reclamation’”
Kore Yamazaki, “第5篇 Misfortunes seldom come singly.”, in 魔法使いの嫁 (魔法使いの嫁), volume 1 (fiction), Tokyo: Mag Garden, page 174:やはり彼女が大事な実験体だからか?裂き喰らう城- Yahari kanojo ga daiji na jikkentai dakara ka? Pirumu mūriarisu
- After all, she’s your indispensable specimen, right? Pilum murialis
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- 彼女の本能は、その刃ほども鋭い。
- Kanojo no honnō wa, sono yaiba hodo mo surudoi.
- Her instinct is as sharp as that blade.
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- エムラクールの周囲では、彼女の想像に合わせて生命が形を変える。
- Emurakūru no shūi de wa, kanojo no sōzō ni awasete seimei ga katachi o kaeru.
- All around Emrakul, life re-formed in her image.
- (colloquial, vulgar) Used as a second-person singular pronoun to an unknown young woman by a man, especially in the vocative mood in a vulgar way.
- ヘイ彼女、お茶しない?
- Hei kanojo, ocha shinai?
- Hey girl, do you want a cup of tea?
Antonyms
Noun
彼女 or 彼女 • (kanojo) ←かのぢよ (kanodyo) or カノヂヨ (kanodyo)?
- (colloquial) a girlfriend (a female partner in a romantic relationship)
- あぁ、彼女がほしいなぁ…
- Ā, kanojo ga hoshii nā…
- Man, I wish I had a girlfriend…
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- いいだろお前 地平線の向こう側へ行ってみたいんだ
- Ii daro omae chiheisen no mukōgawa e itte mitai n da
- Fine, take me to the other side of the horizon then.
てめーは彼女かぁぁ‼- Temē wa kanojo kaaa‼
- You ain’t my damn girlfriend awright!?
2008 July 23, TAGRO, “#05”, in 変ゼミ [Abnormal Physiology Seminar], volume 1 (fiction), Tokyo: Kodansha, →ISBN, page 83:これって……コムギさん⁉自分の彼女がやられてるのにその恍惚の表情は……ナニ⁉
コムギは寝取られフェチなのさ- Kore tte…… Komugi-san⁉ Jibun no kanojo ga yararete ru no ni sono kōkotsu no hyōjō wa…… nani⁉
Komugi wa netorare fechi na no sa - That is… Komugi-san!? His girlfriend’s cheating on him, and yet he has that satisfied look on his face… What the heck⁉
Komugi has a cuckold’s fetish
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- 死ぬ前に彼女欲しかったなあ…………
- Shinu mae ni kanojo hoshikatta nā…………
- I wish I had a girlfriend before I die…
Usage notes
- This is an example of a word that can be spelled with katakana to convey an informal conversational tone, as カノジョ.
Synonyms
- ガールフレンド (gārufurendo, “girlfriend”, borrowed from English)
Antonyms
Hypernyms
Derived terms
Descendants
- → Korean: 그녀(女) (geunyeo) (calque)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
- ^ Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 (in Japanese), First edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
- ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK Publishing, →ISBN
- ^ Yamada, Tadao et al., editors (2011), 新明解国語辞典 (in Japanese), Seventh edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN