積ん読

Japanese

Kanji in this term
積	読
つ Grade: 4	どく Grade: 2
yutōyomi

Alternative spelling
積ん讀 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

Compound of 積む (tsumu, “to pile up”) +‎ 読 (doku, “to read, reading”, on'yomi), punning on 積んどく (tsundoku), contraction of 積んでおく (tsunde oku, “to leave piled up”).[1][2]

Pronunciation

Yutōyomi

(Tokyo) つんどく [tsùńdókú] (Heiban – [0])[2]
IPA^(key): [t͡sɨ̃ᵝndo̞kɯ̟ᵝ]

Noun

積(つ)ん読(どく) • (tsundoku)

(informal) the act of leaving a book unread after buying it,[3] typically piled up together with other such unread books

Coordinate terms

既読(きどく) (kidoku): already read
未読(みどく) (midoku): not yet read

References

1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
Tom Gerken (29 July 2018), “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them”, in (please provide the title of the work)‎, BBC, retrieved 10 August 2022

[KDJ-1] 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan

[DJR-2] 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN

[3] Tom Gerken (29 July 2018), “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them”, in (please provide the title of the work)‎, BBC, retrieved 10 August 2022