Chinese

Japanese

Etymology

From Middle Chinese compound 年號 ‎(nen haw^H, literally “year + call”). Compare modern Mandarin reading niánhào, Cantonese nin⁴ hou⁶.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi: Goon
• (Tokyo) ねんご​う [nèńgóꜜò] (Nakadaka - [3])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [nẽ̞ŋɡ̃o̞ː]

Noun

年号 ‎(shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 年號, hiragana ねんごう, romaji nengō, historical hiragana ねんがう)

1. An era name, applied to periods from a few years to several decades. Used in former times in China and many other East Asian nations; now used only in Taiwan and Japan.

Synonyms

• 元号 (げんごう) ‎(gengō)

References

1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
2. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3