閑古鳥

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Japanese

Kanji in this term
閑 古 鳥
かん
Grade: S 		こ
Grade: 2 		とり > どり
Grade: 2
kan'on kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
閑子鳥 (less common)

Etymology

First attested in the Nippo Jisho of 1603.[1]

Further etymology

Analyzable as a compound of 閑古 (kanko, “lonesome and old”, otherwise unattested) +‎ 鳥 (tori, “bird”). The tori changes to dori as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

The kanko initial portion is apparently a shift in pronunciation from 郭公 (kakkō, “cuckoo”, onomatopoeia for the bird's call), and is likely an example of both meaning-based jukujikun (熟字訓) and sound-based ateji (当て字) for poetic purposes, from the lonesome sound of the cuckoo's call, as alluded to in poetry by Bashō.

  • 憂(う)きわれをさびしがらせよ閑(かん)古(こ)鳥(どり)
    uki ware o sabishigaraseyo kanko-dori
    you're making me blue, cuckoo
From Matsuo Bashō's 嵯峨日記 (Saga Nikki, “Saga Diary”), 1691

While kanko-dori could be viewed as a shift from 郭公鳥 (kakkō-dori), this latter term is not attested until 1686.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

閑(かん)古(こ)鳥(どり) • (kankodori) 

  1. a cuckoo
    Synonyms: 郭公 (kakkō), 郭公鳥 (kakkō-dori)
  2. (figurative) loneliness, dreariness, desolateness

Idioms

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
  4. ^ Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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