| Kanji in this term | |
|---|---|
| 日 | 孁 |
| ひ(る) Grade: 1 |
め Hyōgai |
| kun'yomi | |
| Alternative spellings |
|---|
| 日霊 日女 |
日 (“sun”) + る + 女 (“female”). One theory is that me was specifically 妻 (“wife”), referring to a 巫女 (miko, “shrine maiden”) who served the sun, but it eventually shifted to "goddess". Ru is possibly a variant of ろ, an archaic genitive particle that predates Old Japanese, and it was no longer productive (like の (no) and が (ga)), but became fossilized (like つ (tsu)) in words like 神漏伎 (kamuroki) and 神漏美 (kamuromi), and possibly also 大蛇 (orochi). The male equivalent of this name is possibly ひるこ (Hiruko, literally “Sun Child”), a deformed child resulted from an improper courtship ritual between 伊弉諾 (Izanagi) and 伊弉冉 (Izanami) (女 (-me) was used for females, as in 姫 (hime, “lady”), 乙女 (otome, “maiden”) and 娘 (musume, “daughter”); 子 (-ko) was used for males, as in 彦 (hiko, “lord”), 男 (otoko, “lad”) and 息子 (musuko, “son”)). However, his association with the sun was never clearly stated, and given his deformation, his name is usually interpreted as 蛭子 (literally “Leech Child”).