Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word 眼鏡. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word 眼鏡, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say 眼鏡 in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word 眼鏡 you have here. The definition of the word 眼鏡 will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of眼鏡, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Probably originally a compound of 目(me, “eye”) + 金(kane, “metal”, in reference to the metal used in eyeglass frames). The kane changes to gane as an instance of rendaku (連濁). The spelling is based on an apparent borrowing from Chinese, see the gankyō reading below.
Probably a borrowing from written Chinese眼鏡/眼镜(yǎnjìng). Eyeglasses are first mentioned in Chinese in the 1400s as 靉靆/叆叇(aidai?), a transcription of an Arabic term. By the late Ming dynasty, eyeglasses appear in writing as 靉靆即眼鏡/叆叇即眼镜(“aidai, i.e. eye-lenses”), using the compound term 眼鏡/眼镜(yǎnjìng, literally “eye + lens”). Compare modern Min Nan reading gán-kiàⁿ.
This reading was mostly used by the military. The standalone term gankyō may be somewhat archaic now.
Note that there are compounds that end in 眼鏡(gankyō) that appear to be derived from this term. However, Japanese sources parse these as deriving from other terms ending in 眼(gan, “eye”) that are then suffixed with 鏡(kyō, “lens”).
Cognate with mainland Japanese眼鏡(gankyō), ultimately deriving from written Chinese眼鏡/眼镜(yǎnjìng). Eyeglasses are first mentioned in Chinese in the 1400s as 靉靆/叆叇(aidai?), a transcription of an Arabic term. By the late Ming dynasty, eyeglasses appear in writing as 靉靆即眼鏡/叆叇即眼镜(“aidai, i.e. eye-lenses”), using the compound term 眼鏡/眼镜(yǎnjìng, literally “eye + lens”). Compare modern Min Nan reading gán-kiàⁿ.