軽い

From Old Japanese,^[1] in turn from Proto-Japonic *karu. In Old Japanese, seldom used outside of proper nouns, where in the Kojiki it is spelled as 加流 and in the Man'yōshū it is spelled as 軽,^[1][2] suggesting that this word was already used in Old Japanese with the meaning "light, lightweight". This might be weakly strengthened by a kana annotation of 軽 as karu(ku) in the Nihon Shoki.^[1]

It is generally believed that karu(si) was the older form; this is also supported by Ryukyuan cognates (see Proto-Ryukyuan *karu). In the Heian period and Kamakura period, the variant かろし (karoshi) → かろい (karoi) has started to be in use, while 軽し (karushi) → 軽い (karui) has still seldom usage.

Later, both karosi and karusi began to be used in parallel. Then, in Early Modern Japanese, karui slowly began to replace karoi.

• (Tokyo) かるい (Heiban – )^[2][3][4][5]
• IPA^(key):

軽(かる)い • (karui) -i (adverbial 軽(かる)く (karuku))

1. light, lightweight

   軽(かる)い荷(に)物(もつ)

   karui nimotsu

   light baggage

2. slight, light, mild

   軽(かる)い罰(ばつ)

   karui batsu

   a light punishment

   軽(かる)い肺炎(はいえん)

   karui haien

   mild pneumonia

3. easy

   軽(かる)い仕(し)事(ごと)

   karui shigoto

   an easy job

4. talkative

   彼女(かのじょ)は口(くち)の軽(かる)い女(おんな)だ。

   Kanojo wa kuchi no karui onna da.

   She is a talkative woman.

• (antonym(s) of “light”): 重(おも)い (omoi)

• フッ軽(かる) (fukkaru)