欲する

Japanese

/porisu/ → /posːu/ → /posːuru/

Sound shift from classical verb 欲(ほり)す (horisu),^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] in turn from the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 欲(ほ)る (horu, “to wish for, to desire”). + す (su, precursor to modern する (suru, “to do”)).^[2]^[4]

The sense "to attempt to" is a calque of Classical Chinese 欲.

First attested in ideographic form in the Nihon Shoki of 720,^[2] and in phonetic spelling in the Man'yōshū of 759.^[5]

欲(ほっ)する • (hossuru) transitive suru (stem 欲(ほっ)し (hosshi), past 欲(ほっ)した (hosshita))

to want, to desire
目的(もくてき)を欲(ほっ)する
mokuteki o hossuru
desire one's goal
(literary) in the form んと欲す (-n to hossu) (after the 未然形 (mizenkei, “incomplete form”) of a verb): to attempt to
将(しょう)を射(い)んと欲(ほっ)すればまず馬(うま)を射(い)よ
shō o in to hossureba mazu uma o iyo
(idiom) to shoot the general, first shoot his horse

Conjugation of "ほっする" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)

^ Shinmura, Izuru, editor (1998), 広辞苑 (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 “欲”, in 日本国語大辞典‎ (in Japanese), concise edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2006
^ “欲する”, in デジタル大辞泉‎ (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, updated roughly every four months
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
^
c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 14, poem 3383:
, spelled in the suppositional as 保里勢牟 ⟨porisemu⟩, available online here
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN