腹切り

Japanese
Kanji in this term
腹 切
はら
Grade: 6		 き
Grade: 2
kun’yomi

Alternative forms

Etymology

From 腹(はら) (hara, “belly, bowels”) + 切(き)る (kiru, “to cut”).

Pronunciation
  • (Tokyo) はらきり [hàrákírí] (Heiban – [0])[1]
  • IPA(key): [ha̠ɾa̠kʲiɾʲi]

Noun

腹(はら)切(き)り • (harakiri) 

  1. hara-kiri, self-disembowelment

Usage notes
  • Harakiri, or 切腹(せっぷく) (seppuku), was the Samurai practice of committing honorable suicide in historic Japan, seen as a final deed to cleanse oneself of sins and remove shame. As a verbal suffix, 切(き)る (kiru), otherwise meaning “to cut”, has the connotation of being thorough or decisive while performing an action, indicating the resolve of a Samurai in doing so.

Synonyms

Descendants
  • → English: hara-kiri
  • → Danish: harakiri
  • → German: Harakiri
  • → Russian: хараки́ри (xarakíri) (see there for further descendants)

References
  1. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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