Chinese edit

hundred foot; to be sufficient
simp. and trad.
(百足)
alternative forms 百縮百缩 dialectal Cantonese
百宿 dialectal Cantonese
百叔 dialectal Cantonese

Pronunciation edit


Noun edit

百足

  1. (literary or Cantonese, Pinghua, dialectal Hakka) centipede (Classifier: c)
  2. (literary) millipede; diplopod

Synonyms edit

  • (millipede):

Derived terms edit

Sino-Xenic (百足):
  • Japanese: (ひゃく)(そく) (hyakusoku)

Japanese edit

 
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百足 (mukade, hyakusoku): a centipede.

Etymology 1 edit

Kanji in this term
むかで
Grade: 1 Grade: 1
jukujikun
Alternative spellings
蜈蚣
蜈蜙
蝍蛆

From Old Japanese, of unknown derivation; some theories include:

  1. a compound of 向かい (mukai, facing, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, continuative or stem form) of verb 向かう (mukau, to face)) +‎ (te, hand), as the centipede's feet come in facing pairs
  2. a compound of (mu, six) +‎ (ka, ten, unusual reading; compare the ga in 五十嵐 (igarashi)) +‎ (te, hand), literally "sixty hands"; centipedes have more or less than one hundred legs
  3. starting as a compound of (momo, hundred) +‎ (ga, ancient possessive particle) +‎ (te, hand), shifting phonetically: /momo ɡa te//mukade/

While the latter two theories seem plausible semantically, the devoicing of ga to ka is quite unusual.

The kanji are jukujikun (熟字訓), from Chinese 百足 (bǎizú).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

百足(むかで) or 百足(ムカデ) (mukade (standard)
(alternative reading hiragana むかぜ, rōmaji mukaze) (Kagoshima dialect)

  1. a centipede
Usage notes edit

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as ムカデ.

Etymology 2 edit

Kanji in this term
ひゃく
Grade: 1
そく
Grade: 1
on’yomi

From Middle Chinese 百足 (MC paek tsjowk).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

(ひゃく)(そく) (hyakusoku

  1. (rare) a centipede
Usage notes edit

The mukade reading is much more common.

See also edit

References edit

  1. 1.0 1.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN

Further reading edit

Miyako edit

Kanji in this term
Grade: 1 Grade: 1
Alternative spelling
蜈蚣

Noun edit

百足(んかじ) (nkaji

  1. a centipede

Oki-No-Erabu edit

Kanji in this term
Grade: 1 Grade: 1
Alternative spelling
蜈蚣

Noun edit

百足(むかじ) (mukaji

  1. a centipede

Toku-No-Shima edit

Kanji in this term
Grade: 1 Grade: 1
Alternative spelling
蜈蚣

Noun edit

百足(ぬかで) (nukade

  1. a centipede