西瓜

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西瓜

西瓜

1. watermelon

Others:

• → Brunei Malay: sikoi
• → English: xigua
• → Mongolian: шийгуа (šiigua)
• → Zhuang: sihgvah, sae'gva

From Middle Chinese 西瓜 (MC sej kwae, literally “west melon”). Compare modern Mandarin 西瓜 (xīguā, “watermelon”). Sui is the 唐音 (tōon) of 西.[1][2][3][4] There is an alternative spelling of 水瓜,[1][3][2][4][5] which may be seen as both ateji and a calque of English watermelon.

Various Japanese references indicate that the fruit was imported from China in the early Edo period in the 1600s.[1][3][2] However, the word is first attested in Japanese in a text from the 1360s, suggesting that the fruit was originally imported earlier, but did not become more widely known until the 1600s.[4]

• (Tokyo) すいか [sùíká] (Heiban – [0])[2][5][6]
• IPA^(key): [sɨᵝika̠]

西(すい)瓜(か) or 西瓜(スイカ) • (suika) ^{←すいくわ (suikwa)?}

1. watermelon

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

西瓜 • (seogwa) (hangeul 서과)

1. Hanja form^? of 서과 (“watermelon”).

• IPA^(key): /ɕiːkʷa/

西(しー)瓜(くゎ) or 西瓜(シークヮ) (shīkwa) 

1. watermelon

   Synonym: 広東瓜 (kwantuui)

• “シークヮ” in Okinawa Center of Language Study, Shuri-Naha Dialect Dictionary (archived; reopens 2024).