幼い

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Japanese

Kanji in this term
おさな
Grade: 6
kun'yomi

Etymology

Possibly from Old Japanese. Japanese dictionaries cite the word to the Nihon Shoki (720), but only where kana glosses read (literally “not mature; not capable”) as ヲサナシ (wosanasi).[1][2] The first actual phonetic attestation is in the Shinsen Jikyō (898-901), as 乎佐奈志.[2]

Compound of (osa, chief, senior) +‎ 無い (nai, not, from classical 無し (nashi)).[1]

Pronunciation

  • Tokyo pitch accent of inflected forms of 「幼い
Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary
Stem forms
Continuative (連用形) 幼く なく
さな

Terminal (終止形) 幼い さな
Attributive (連体形) 幼い さな
Key constructions
Informal negative 幼くない なくない
さなくない

Informal past 幼かった なかった
さなかった

Informal negative past 幼くなかった なくなかった
さなくなかった

Formal 幼いです さないです
Conjunctive 幼くて なくて
さなくて

Conditional 幼ければ なければ
さなければ

Adjective

(おさな) (osanaiをさない (wosanai)?-i (adverbial (おさな) (osanaku))

  1. immature; foolish
  2. childish
  3. very young
  4. underdeveloped

Inflection

Synonyms

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 おさ‐な・い[をさ‥] 【幼】Paid subscription required”, in 日本国語大辞典 (in Japanese), 2nd edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2000-2002, released online 2007, →ISBN, concise edition entry available here
  2. 2.0 2.1 The template Template:R:Jidai-betsu Kokugo Daijiten does not use the parameter(s):
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    Omodaka, Hisataka (1967) 時代別国語大辞典 上代編 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  4. ^ 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