野火

Japanese

Kanji in this term
野	火

Etymology 1

Compound of 野 (no, “field”) +‎ 火 (hi, “fire”). The hi changes to bi due to rendaku (連濁).

An ancient variant seen in eastern Japan uses the dialectical reading nu for 野.

Noun

野火 (hiragana のび, romaji nobi)

野火 (hiragana ぬび, romaji nubi) (obsolete)

1. a controlled burn set in early spring to clear away brush from mountain fields
2. a wildfire

Alternative forms

• 燹 (rare)

Synonyms

• (controlled agricultural burn): 野焼き (のやき, noyaki)

Etymology 2

Compound of 火 (ho, “fire”) +‎ 退く (soku, “to push away, to make distant”).

The kun'yomi for 火 is usually hi, but it can appear as ho or fu, particularly in older compounds.

The soku changes to soke due to conjugation of the verb. Grammatically, the stem form (連用形 (ren'yōkei)) soki would be expected; soke may indicate either a sound shift over time from a previous soki conjugation, or that the verb in this compound was originally conjugated into the hypothetical form (仮定形 (kateikei)) soke.

The kanji 野火 are an example of jukujikun.

Noun

野火 (hiragana ほそけ, romaji hosoke) (rare)

1. a backburn: a controlled fire deliberately set in the path of a wildfire to create a firebreak by removing combustible material

Alternative forms

• 火退 (rare)
• 逆焼 (rare)
• 燹 (rare)

Usage notes

The more common word for this is 向火, 向かい火 (むかいび, mukaibi).

Synonyms

• 向火, 向かい火 (むかいび, mukaibi)

Etymology 3

From Sinitic 野火.

Noun

野火 (hiragana やか, romaji yaka)

1. a controlled burn set to clear away brush from fields
2. a fire set in a field
3. a wildfire
4. a will o' the wisp

Synonyms

• (controlled agricultural burn; wildfire): 燎原 (りょうげん, ryōgen)
• (will o' the wisp): 鬼火 (おにび, onibi), 狐火 (きつねび, kitsunebi), 狐日 (きつねび, kitsunebi), 陰火 (いんか, inka), 幽霊火 (ゆうれいび, yūreibi), 不知火 (しらぬい, shiranui)

See also

• 野火 on the Japanese Wikipedia.ja.Wikipedia
• Wildfire on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Wildfire