桜ん坊
Japanese
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桜ん坊 (sakuranbō, sakuranbo): Japanese cultivated cherries.
Kanji in this term | |
---|---|
桜 | 坊 |
さくら Grade: 5 | ぼう Grade: S |
yutōyomi |
Alternative forms
- 桜桃 (less common)
Etymology
/sakuranbau/ → /sakuranbɔː/ → /sakuranboː/
Etymology unclear. Leading theories include:
- Compound of 桜 (sakura, “cherry, cherry tree”) + の (no, possessive particle) + 坊 (bō, “boy, monk”, in reference to the tradition of shaven heads, indicating the smooth skin of the cherry fruit)
- Compound of 桜 (sakura, “cherry, cherry tree”) + 桃 (momo, “peach”, in reference to fruit in general; with a phonetic shift from /m/ to /b/ and shift from /bobo/ to /boː/)
Given the historical reading of sakuranbau, matching the historical bau reading of 坊, the initial derivation seems more likely.
The sakuranbō represents a regular historical shift from older sakuranbau. Sakuranbō with the long ō has been somewhat superseded in modern Japanese by the shortened reading sakuranbo.
The alternative 桜桃 spelling is an example of jukujikun (熟字訓), from Middle Chinese 櫻桃.
Pronunciation
- (Tokyo) さくらんぼー [sàkúráńbóó] (Heiban – [0])
- IPA(key): [sa̠kɯ̟ᵝɾã̠mbo̞ː]
- (Irregular reading)
- (Tokyo) さくらんぼ [sàkúráńbó] (Heiban – [0])[1]
- IPA(key): [sa̠kɯ̟ᵝɾã̠mbo̞]
Noun
桜ん坊 (hiragana さくらんぼう, rōmaji sakuranbō, alternative reading さくらんぼ, katakana サクランボ, rōmaji sakuranbo, historical hiragana さくらんばう)
- (fruit) cherry (mostly used for Japanese cherries)
- Synonym: チェリー (cherī) (mostly used for non-Japanese cherries)
Related terms
- 桜 (sakura): cherry tree
References
- 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN