鮟

Translingual

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 魚 (“fish”) + phonetic 安 – a kind of fish.

Found in ancient Chinese as corruption of 鰋 (changing 匽 to 安) and originally meaning a kind of catfish. Later, independently coined in Edo period Japan in word 鮟鱇 (ankō, “monkfish”) from ateji 安康 (ankō) by adding the 魚 (“fish”) radical to each of the ateji characters. As found in Chinese, not considered a Japanese kokuji coinage, though 鱇 is kokuji, as it is not found in Chinese. Subsequently borrowed into Chinese from Japanese, both in compound 鮟鱇 and as isolated 鮟.

Han character

鮟 (radical 195 魚+6, 17 strokes, cangjie input 弓火十女 (NFJV))

1. anglerfish

References

• KangXi: page 1469, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 46108
• Dae Jaweon: page 2001, character 41
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 7, page 4689, character 9
• Unihan data for U+9B9F

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Japanese

Kanji

鮟 (uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. anglerfish, monkfish

Readings

• On: あん (an)

Compounds

• 鮟鱇 (あんこう, ankō): anglerfish, monkfish
• 鮟肝 (あんきも, ankimo): monkfish liver

Usage notes

Only found in compounds. Not used in isolation.

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Korean

Hanja

鮟 (hangeul 안, revised an, McCune-Reischauer an, Yale an)

1. (아귀) monkfish

Synonyms

• 鱇 (안, gang)

Compounds

• 鮟鱇 (안강, an-gang) monkfish

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Mandarin

Hanzi

鮟 (pinyin àn (an4), Wade-Giles an⁴)

1. an anglerfish