酷薄

Japanese

Kanji in this term
こく
Grade: S
はく
Grade: S
on’yomi kan’on
Alternative spelling
刻薄

Etymology

Ultimately from Middle Chinese 刻薄 (MC khok bak). First attested in Japanese in 1439.[1]

After borrowing, the initial character in Japanese became more associated with cutting than with cruelty, leading to this character gradually being replaced with the homophonous and partially synonymous character .

Pronunciation

  • (Tokyo) はく [kòkúhákú] (Heiban – [0])[2][3]
  • IPA(key): [ko̞kɯ̟̊ᵝha̠kɯ̟ᵝ]

Adjective

(こく)(はく) • (kokuhaku) -na (adnominal (こく)(はく) (kokuhaku na), adverbial (こく)(はく) (kokuhaku ni))

  1. [from 1439] cruel, inhumane, callous

Inflection

Noun

(こく)(はく) • (kokuhaku) 

  1. [from 1439] cruelty, inhumaneness, callousness

References

  1. 酷薄・刻薄”, in 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, Nihon Kokugo Daijiten) (in Japanese), concise edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 2000
  2. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. 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
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.