木漏れ日

Japanese

FWOTD – 14 April 2017

Etymology

Kanji in this term
木	漏	日
こ Grade: 1	も Grade: S	ひ > び Grade: 1
kun’yomi

Alternative spellings
木漏日木洩れ日木洩日木洩れ陽

Compound of 木 (ko, “tree”, ancient combining form of modern 木 ki) +‎ 漏れ (more, “leaking, coming through”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 漏れる moreru, “to leak, to come through”) +‎ 日 (hi, “sun; sunlight”).[1][2] The hi changes to bi as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

木漏れ日 (komorebi): sunlight streaming through the trees.

Pronunciation

(Tokyo) こもれび [kòmóréꜜbì] (Nakadaka – [3])[2][3]
(Tokyo) こもれび [kòmórébí] (Heiban – [0])[3]
IPA^(key): [ko̞mo̞ɾe̞bʲi]

Noun

木(こ)漏(も)れ日(び) • (komorebi)

sunlight filtering through trees
- 1987, “輝きながら…”, 大津あきら (lyrics), performed by 德永英󠄄明:
  
  瞳(ひとみ)を閉(と)じても木洩(こも)れ陽(び)が　手(て)を振(ふ)る君(きみ)を照(て)らしてる
  hitomi o tojite mo komorebi ga te o furu kimi o terashiteru
  Even if I close my eyes, the sunlight shines on you waving your hand

References

Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK Publishing, →ISBN