いろは

いろは

Japanese

Etymology 1

⟨iro₂ha⟩: */irəjpa/ → /iropa/ → /irofa/ → /iroha/

From Old Japanese.

Compound of いろ (iro, “kinship, same family”) +‎ は (ha, cognate with 母 (haha, “mother”)).[1][2]

Noun

いろは • (iroha) 

1. mother
   • 931–938, Minamoto no Shitagō, Wamyō Ruijushō (book 1, page 116)

     母 尔雅云、母爲妣、卑履反、去聲之重、和名波々、日本紀私記云、以路波

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   Synonyms: 母, お母さん

Etymology 2

Alternative spellings
伊呂波 以呂波 色葉

From a pangrammatic poem written in the mid-Heian period. The earliest textual reference is from 1079 CE.[1][2]

Noun

いろは • (iroha) 

1. a traditional ordering system for kana
2. (dated) the rudiments, the fundamentals, the basics (of a subject), the ABCs

Etymology 3

For pronunciation and definitions of いろは – see the following entry.

【紅葉あかは】 [proper noun] a female given name Alternative spellings 黄葉, あけは, あげは, かえで, くれは, べには, もみ, もよ

(This term, いろは, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

References

1. 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN