玄人

玄人

Japanese

Kanji in this term
玄	人
くろ Grade: S	うと Grade: 1
kun’yomi

Etymology

*/kuroputo/ → */kurofuto/ → /kurouto/

Compound of 玄 (くろ) (kuro, “deep, profound”) + 人 (うと) (uto, “person”).

The term 人 (hito, “person”) appears in various older compounds with a root form of 人 (*puto → *buto → *udo, *puto → *futo → *uto). This form is never seen in isolation, and it often undergoes further phonetic changes to combine with preceding vowels. Compare the formation of 仲人 (nakōdo), from naka + udo; 旅人 (tabiudo), from tabi + udo; 素人 (shirōto), from shiro + uto.

Pronunciation

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) く​ろうと [kúꜜròùtò] (Atamadaka – [1])[1]
  • (Tokyo) くろ​うと [kùróꜜùtò] (Nakadaka – [2])[1]
  • IPA^(key): [kɯ̟ᵝɾo̞ɯ̟ᵝto̞]

Noun

玄人 (hiragana くろうと, rōmaji kurouto)

1. professional, master

Antonyms

• 素人 (しろうと) (shirōto)

References

1. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN