百足

百足

1. (literary or Cantonese, Pinghua, dialectal Hakka) centipede (Classifier: 條／条 c)
2. (literary) millipede; diplopod

• (millipede):

From Old Japanese, of unknown derivation; some theories include:

1. a compound of 向かい (mukai, “facing”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 向かう (mukau, “to face”)) +‎ 手 (te, “hand”), as the centipede's feet come in facing pairs
2. a compound of 六 (mu, “six”) +‎ 十 (ka, “ten”, unusual reading; compare the ga in 五十嵐 (igarashi)) +‎ 手 (te, “hand”), literally "sixty hands"; centipedes have more or less than one hundred legs
3. starting as a compound of 百 (momo, “hundred”) +‎ が (ga, ancient possessive particle) +‎ 手 (te, “hand”), shifting phonetically: /momo ɡa te/ → /mukade/

While the latter two theories seem plausible semantically, the devoicing of ga to ka is quite unusual.

The kanji are jukujikun (熟字訓), from Chinese 百足 (bǎizú).

• (Tokyo) むかで [mùkádé] (Heiban – [0])[1][2][3]
• IPA^(key): [mɯ̟ᵝka̠de̞]

百足(むかで) or 百足(ムカデ) • (mukade)  (standard)
(alternative reading hiragana むかぜ, rōmaji mukaze) (Kagoshima dialect)

1. a centipede

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as ムカデ.

From Middle Chinese 百足 (MC paek tsjowk).

• (Tokyo) ひゃくそく [hyàkúsókú] (Heiban – [0])[1]
• IPA^(key): [ça̠kɯ̟ᵝso̞kɯ̟ᵝ]

百(ひゃく)足(そく) • (hyakusoku) 

1. (rare) a centipede

The mukade reading is much more common.

• 馬陸(やすで) (yasude, “a millipede”)

• Etymology at Gogen-Allguide (in Japanese)
• Etymology at Nihon Jiten (in Japanese)

百足(んかじ) (nkaji) 

1. a centipede

百足(むかじ) (mukaji) 

1. a centipede

百足(ぬかで) (nukade) 

1. a centipede