English

Noun

jukujikun ‎(plural jukujikun)

1. (linguistics) A Japanese word whose kanji spelling conveys the meaning based on the individual characters, but the reading is not directly related to the spelling. For example, 大 ‎(“big”, usually read ō in kun'yomi compounds) and 人 ‎(“person”, usually read hito in kun'yomi compounds) combine to form 大人, meaning “adult” but read as otona instead of the otherwise-expected ōbito.

Usage notes

Examples include:-

• "smoke" (煙 ​kemuri) + "grass" (草 ​kusa) = tobacco (煙草 ​tabako)
• "great" (大 ​ō) + "peace" (和 ​wa) = unified Japan (大和 ​Yamato)
• "seven" (七 ​nana) + "evening" (夕 ​yū) = a star festival held July 7th (七夕 ​Tanabata)
• "ageless wizard" (仙人 ​sennin) + "hand" (和 ​tenohira) = cactus (仙人掌 ​saboten)
• "place" (所 ​tokoro) + "because of" (以 ​motsu) = grounds, justification (所以 ​yuen)
• "horse" (馬 ​uma) + "drunken" (酔 ​yoi) + "tree" (木 ​ki) = Japanese andromeda, a shrub poisonous to horses (馬酔木 ​ashibi)
• "hunted animal" (猟 ​kari) + "tiger" (虎 ​tora) = "sea otter" (猟虎 ​rakko)
• "ocean" (海 ​umi) + "otter" (獺 ​kawauso) = "sea otter" (海獺 ​rakko)

Related terms

• ateji (当て字)
• gikun (義訓)

References

• Taylor, I., & Taylor, M. M. (1995) Writing and literacy in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company, p. 302.

Japanese

Romanization

jukujikun

1. rōmaji reading of じゅくじくん