See also: あらす

Japanese

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Alternative spellings
非ず
有らず
在らず

Etymology

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From Old Japanese. As a basic verb form, attested in ancient sources such as the Man'yōshū of 759.

The interjection senses appear later in the historical record, with the no, wrong sense attested from around the late 800s in the Kokin Wakashū as a shortening of the phrase あらず (sa ni wa arazu, literally it's not like that),[1][2] and the never mind sense attested from roughly the late 900s as recorded in The Pillow Book.[1][2]

Derived from the copula あり (ari) as the regular negative form, from the 未然形 (mizenkei, irrealis conjugation) of ara- + negative auxiliary suffix (zu).

Verb

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あらず (arazu

  1. 非ず, 有らず, 在らず: [from 700s] (Classical Japanese or literary) negative of あり

Usage notes

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  • The equative 'X is not Y' sense, being the negative form of にあり, always follows the copular particle (ni), sometimes in combination with contrastive topic particle (ha). The existential sense may stand isolated.

Derived terms

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  • ならず (narazu) (contraction of (ni) + あらず (arazu))

See also

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Interjection

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あらず (arazu

  1. 非ず: [from late 800s] (archaic, possibly obsolete) no, wrong
  2. 非ず: [from late 900s] (archaic, possibly obsolete) never mind

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. 2.0 2.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN