Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

魚 (radical 195 魚+0, 11 strokes, cangjie input 弓田火 (NWF), four-corner 2733₆, composition ⿳⺈田灬)

1. Kangxi radical #195, ⿂ ‎(“fish”).

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/魚

Descendants

• 鱼, 𩵋

References

• KangXi: page 1465, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 45956
• Dae Jaweon: page 1998, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 7, page 4674, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9B5A

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 魚
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Pictogram (象形) – pictographic representation of a fish.

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-ŋja. Cognate with 漁 (OC *ŋa, “to fish”).

Pronunciation

Definitions

魚

1. fish   (Classifier: 條／条 m c; 尾 m h mn)
2. A surname​.

Compounds

Descendants

Others:

• Dungan: йүр, йү

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. fish

Readings

• Goon: ご (go) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kan’on: ぎょ (gyo)
• Kun: うお (uo), いお (io), お (o), な (na), さかな (sakana), すなど.る (魚る sunado.ru) (rare)
• Nanori: い (i)

Compounds

Etymology 1

魚 (uo, io, o, sakana): fish

From Old Japanese.^[1]

The pronunciation shifted from /uwo/ to /uo/.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) うお [ùó] (Heiban - [0])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [ɯᵝo̞]

Noun

魚 ‎(hiragana うお, romaji uo, historical hiragana うを)

1. fish

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Alteration of older uo, appearing from roughly the Heian period. Still used in modern Japanese some dialects.^[1]

The pronunciation shifted from /uwo/ to /iwo/ to /io/.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [io̞]

Noun

魚 ‎(hiragana いお, romaji io, historical hiragana いを)

1. fish

Etymology 3

Shortening of uo, appearing only in compounds.^[1]

The pronunciation shifted from /uwo/ to /wo/ to /o/.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [o̞]

Noun

魚 ‎(hiragana お, romaji o, historical hiragana を)

1. fish

Derived terms

Etymology 4

魚 (na): fish as a side dish

From Old Japanese. Cognate with な ‎(na, “a side dish”), spelled variously in kanji in modern Japanese as 肴 ‎(for meat or fish), 菜 ‎(for vegetables), 魚 ‎(for fish).^[1]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [na̠]

Noun

魚 ‎(hiragana な, romaji na)

1. fish, especially as food
   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 5, poem 869)

     多良志比賣 可尾能美許等能 奈都良須等 美多々志世利斯 伊志遠多礼美吉

     足姫　神の命の　魚釣らすと　み立たしせりし　石を誰れ見き

     たらしひめ　かみのみことの　なつらすと　みたたしせりし　いしをたれみき

     tarashi hime kami no mikoto no na tsurasu to mi-tatashi serishi ishi wo tare miki

     who saw the rock that rose up against us as we tried to catch the fish belonging to the empress?

   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 2, poem 131)

     滷者無鞆　鯨魚取 海邊乎指而 和多豆乃 荒礒乃上尓 香青生　玉藻息津藻 朝羽振 風社依米

     潟はなくとも　鯨魚取り　海辺を指して　柔田津の　荒礒の上に　か青なる　玉藻沖つ藻 朝羽振る 風こそ寄せめ

     かたはなくとも　いさなとり　うみへをさして　にきたづの　ありそのうへに　かあをなる　たまもおきつも　あさはふる　かぜこそよせめ

     kata wa naku to mo isana tori umihe wo sashite Nikitadzu no ariso no uhe ni kaawo naru tamamo oki tsu mo asa ni furu kaze koso yoseme

     Even though there is no inlet, the wind that blows in the morning gathers green seaweed pearls and offshore seaweed onto the rocky beaches of Nikitazu along the big-fish-hunting [metaphor for "sea"] shore...

Derived terms

Etymology 5

魚, 肴 (sakana): a side dish served with alcoholic beverages

Compound of Old Japanese elements 酒 ‎(saka, “sake, rice wine”) +‎ 菜 ‎(na, “side dish”, see also na above).^[1] Likely source of Okinawan sakana.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) さかな [sàkáná] (Heiban - [0])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [sa̠kã̠na̠]

Alternative forms

• 肴

Noun

魚 ‎(hiragana さかな, romaji sakana)

1. fish
2. a side dish served with alcoholic beverages: not necessarily fish, may be a vegetable or other meat
3. (archaic) entertainment at a drinking party

Usage notes

This is now the most common general word for fish in modern standard Japanese. The side dish sense is more commonly spelled 肴.

Derived terms

Etymology 6

From Middle Chinese 魚 (/ŋiɔ/). Compare modern Mandarin 魚 ‎(yú).

Used in compounds.

Affix

魚 ‎(hiragana ぎょ, romaji gyo)

1. fish

Derived terms

References

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

Korean

Hanja

魚 • ‎(eo) (hangeul 어, revised eo, McCune-Reischauer ŏ, Yale e)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Compounds

• 文魚, 문어 ‎(muneo, “octopus”)

Mulam

Noun

魚 ‎(məm6)

1. fish

Okinawan

Kanji

魚

• Kun: いう (iu), いゆ (iyu)

Etymology 1

/uwo/ → /iwo/ → /io/ → /iu/

Cognate with Old Japanese 魚 ‎(uwo). Compare modern dialectal mainland Japanese 魚 ‎(io), first appearing in print and becoming common from the Heian period, but likely extant earlier.

Noun

魚 ‎(hiragana いう, romaji iu)

1. fish

Etymology 2

/iu/ → /iju/

Sound shift from iu.

Noun

魚 ‎(hiragana いゆ, romaji iyu)

1. fish

Derived terms

Old Japanese

Alternative forms

• 奈

Noun

魚 ‎(na) ‎(kana な)

1. fish
   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 2, poem 131)

     滷者無鞆　鯨魚取 海邊乎指而 和多豆乃 荒礒乃上尓 香青生　玉藻息津藻 朝羽振 風社依米

     潟はなくとも　鯨魚取り　海辺を指して　柔田津の　荒礒の上に　か青なる　玉藻沖つ藻 朝羽振る 風こそ寄せめ

     かたはなくとも　いさなとり　うみへをさして　にきたづの　ありそのうへに　かあをなる　たまもおきつも　あさはふる　かぜこそよせめ

     kata wa naku to mo isana tori umihe wo sashite Nikitadzu no ariso no uhe ni kaawo naru tamamo oki tsu mo asa ni furu kaze koso yoseme

     Even though there is no inlet, the wind that blows in the morning gathers green seaweed pearls and offshore seaweed onto the rocky beaches of Nikitazu along the big-fish-hunting [metaphor for "sea"] shore...

Descendants

• Japanese: 魚 ‎(na)

Vietnamese

Han character

魚 (ngư, ngơ, ngớ, ngừ)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Yonaguni

Kanji

魚 ‎(hiragana いゆ, romaji iyu)

Noun

魚 ‎(hiragana いゆ, romaji iyu)

1. fish

Derived terms

Yoron

Kanji

魚 ‎(hiragana っゆー, romaji 'yū)

Noun

魚 ‎(hiragana っゆー, romaji 'yū)

1. fish