避く
Japanese
Etymology 1
Kanji in this term |
---|
避 |
さ Grade: S |
From Old Japanese.
Cognate with 離く, 放く (saku, “to separate things, to put a space between things”),[1][2] in turn cognate with 割く, 裂く (saku, “to split, to tear apart”, both transitive and intransitive), and 咲く (saku, “to bloom”).
The sense appears to have developed as to put a space between things → to keep at a distance → to avoid.
This saku form is the classical form of modern 避ける (sakeru).
Pronunciation
- Kun’yomi
- IPA(key): [sa̠kɯ̟ᵝ]
Verb
避く • (saku) transitive †nidan
- to avoid, to dodge
Etymology 2
Kanji in this term |
---|
避 |
よ Grade: S |
From Old Japanese. Appears in the Man'yōshū, completed some time after 759 CE.
Cognate with 横 (yoko, “side; sideways; to the side”).[2]
The sense appears to have developed as to step or pull to one side → to avoid, or to exclude by pushing off to the side.
This yoku form is the classical form of modern 避ける (yokeru).
Pronunciation
- Kun’yomi
- IPA(key): [jo̞kɯ̟ᵝ]
Verb
避く • (yoku) transitive †nidan
- to avoid, to dodge
- to preemptively avoid something: to prevent
- to push to the side, to exclude
Usage notes
This verb has exhibited three classical conjugation patterns in historical texts: 上二段活用 (kami nidan katsuyō, “upper bigrade conjugation”) where the verb stem ends in either -u or -i, 四段活用 (yodan katsuyō, “quadrigrade conjugation”) where the verb stem ends in -u, -a, -i, or -e, and 下二段活用 (shimo nidan katsuyō, “lower bigrade conjugation”) where the verb stem ends in either -u or -e. The shimo pattern arose in the Kamakura period or Muromachi period,[2] later displacing the other two patterns to become the main form used in classical or literary Japanese.[1][2][3]
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
- 1995, 大辞泉 (Daijisen) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN