白妙

Japanese

Alternative spelling
白栲

/siro₁ tape₂/ → /sirotape/ → /sirotafe/ → /ɕirotawe/ → /ɕiɾotae/

From Old Japanese. Found in the Man'yōshū, completed some time after 759 CE, spelled either phonetically in man'yōgana, or as 白細, 白布, 白細布, 白木綿.

Originally a compound of 白(しろ) (shiro, “white”) + 栲(たえ) (tae, “cloth”, archaic). The use of 妙 (“excellent, delicate”) is an example of jukujikun (熟字訓), usually as a part of a 枕詞 (makurakotoba, “pillow word”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

白(しろ)妙(たえ) • (shirotae) ^{←しろたへ (sirotafe)^?}

a white cloth, made from the fibers of, for example, the 梶の木 (kajinoki, “paper mulberry”) tree.
(by extension) the colour white

Alternative spelling
白栲

/sira tape₂/ → /siratape/ → /siratafe/ → /ɕiratawe/ → /ɕiɾatae/

Variant spelling of shirotae above. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

白(しら)妙(たえ) • (shiratae) ^{←しらたへ (siratafe)^?}

(rare) a white cloth, made from the fibers of, for example, the 梶の木 (kajinoki, “paper mulberry”) tree.
(rare, by extension) the colour white

^
c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 5, poem 904:
, text here
^
c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 14, poem 3449:
, text here
^
c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 17, poem 3973:
, text here
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN