蛍

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word 蛍. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word 蛍, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say 蛍 in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word 蛍 you have here. The definition of the word 蛍 will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of蛍, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: 螢 and 萤
蛍 U+86CD, 蛍
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-86CD
← 蛌
 		CJK Unified Ideographs 蛎 →

Translingual

Traditional 螢
Shinjitai 蛍
Simplified 萤

Han character

蛍 (Kangxi radical 142, 虫+5, 11 strokes, cangjie input 火月中一戈 (FBLMI), composition ⿱𰃮虫)

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 1081, character 11
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 32983
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): not present, would follow volume 4, page 2845, character 4
  • Unihan data for U+86CD

Chinese

For pronunciation and definitions of 蛍 – see 螢 (“firefly”).
(This character is a variant form of 螢).

Japanese

Shinjitai

蛍

Kyūjitai

螢

Glyph origin

Japanese shinjitai character. Simplified from 螢 (𤇾 → 𰃮).

Kanji

蛍

(Jōyō kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 螢)

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
蛍
ほたる
Grade: S
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
螢 (kyūjitai)
 ホタル on Japanese Wikipedia

From Old Japanese. Appears in the Man'yōshú, compiled some time after 759 CE.[1] Ultimate derivation unknown.

  • The initial ho element is almost certainly the ancient form of 火 (hi, “fire”), which appears as ho in compounds such as 炎 (honō, “flame”, originally from ho no ho) or 火屋 (hoya, “lamp chimney”).
  • Various theories exist regarding the taru portion. This may be from classical verb 垂る (taru, “to hang down, to droop”, in reference to a firefly's posterior; modern form 垂れる (tareru)), or a vowel shift from verb 照る (teru, “to shine”).

Pronunciation

Noun

蛍(ほたる) or 蛍(ホタル) • (hotaru) 

  1. a firefly
    火(ほ)垂(た)るの墓(はか)
    Hotaru no Haka
    Grave of the Fireflies
Derived terms

Proper noun

蛍(ほたる) • (Hotaru) 

  1. a female given name

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
蛍
けい
Grade: S
kan'on
Alternative spelling
螢 (kyūjitai)

From Middle Chinese 螢 (MC hweng, “firefly”).

Affix

蛍(けい) • (kei) 

  1. used in various compounds to refer to fluorescence

Proper noun

蛍(けい) • (Kei) 

  1. a female given name

References

  1. ^
    c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 13, poem 3344:
    , text here
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ Yamada, Tadao et al., editors (2011), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Seventh edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

Korean

Hanja

蛍 • (hyeong) (hangeul 형, revised hyeong, McCune–Reischauer hyŏng, Yale hyeng)

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Old Japanese

Noun

蛍 (POTARU) (kana ほたる)

  1. firefly
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia