Translingual

Han character

剣 (radical 18 刀+8, 10 strokes, cangjie input 人人中弓 (OOLN) or X人人中弓 (XOOLN), composition ⿰㑒刂)

1. sword, dagger, sabre

Related characters

• 険 検 験

References

• KangXi: not present, would follow page 141, character 41
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2076
• Dae Jaweon: page 321, character 13
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 345, character 4
• Unihan data for U+5263

Japanese

剣: A ken or tsurugi with 鞘 ‎(saya, “scabbard”).

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 劍)

Readings

• Goon: こん (kon) (non-Jōyō reading), (historical) こむ (komu)
• Kan’on: けん (ken), (historical) けむ (kemu)
• Kun: つるぎ (tsurugi)
• Nanori: けんざき (kenzaki), まやか (mayaka)

Etymology 1

From Middle Chinese 劍 ‎(kjæmH, “sword”). Compare modern Mandarin traditional 劍 and simplified 剑 ‎(jiàn, “sword, dagger, saber”).

Pronunciation

• On'yomi: Kan'on
• (Tokyo) け​ん [kéꜜǹ] (Atamadaka - [1])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [kẽ̞ɴ]

Noun

剣 ‎(hiragana けん, romaji ken, historical hiragana けむ)

1. sword

Usage notes

This term refers to swords in general.^[2]

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Unknown. Also read as tsuruki in Old Japanese contexts.^[2][1]

A surface analysis suggests that this might be a compound of tsuru (variously 釣る or 吊る, meaning “to hang, as at one's side”) + ki, but there is no clear etymon for the ki portion. One possibility would be 牙 ‎(“fang”), read as kiba in modern Japanese but also appearing as ki in Old Japanese contexts. Such usage might parallel the combined tooth and blade meanings of the term ha, spelled more specifically as 歯 ‎(“tooth”) and 刃 ‎(“blade”), with these two senses listed as cognates in Japanese dictionaries.^[2][1]

More tentative suggestions have been connections to Austronesian, such as Tagalog suligi ‎(“dart; short spear”), but such possibilities seem only speculative at present.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) つるぎ [tsùrúgí] (Heiban - [0])^[1]
• (Tokyo) つるぎ​ [tsùrúgíꜜ] (Odaka - [3])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [t͡sɯᵝɾ̠ɯᵝɡ̃i]

Noun

剣 ‎(hiragana つるぎ, romaji tsurugi)

1. sword

Usage notes

This term usually refers more specifically to double-edged swords, as opposed to the single-edged 刀 ‎(katana).^[2]

Synonyms

• 諸刃 (もろは, ​moroha): a double-edged sword

Etymology 3

Unknown. Japanese names often apply readings from other words to allude to different meanings.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ma̠ja̠ka̠]

Proper noun

剣 ‎(hiragana まやか, romaji Mayaka)

1. A female given name

References

1. 1 2 3 4 5 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
2. 1 2 3 4 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan