ぼら

Japanese

Alternative spellings
鰡 鯔

Etymology

Unknown. Japanese dictionaries do not indicate when this term first appears in text.

Monolingual sources speculate that this may be from some element ho ("fat") + 腹 (hara, “belly”), but there is no solid evidence for any ho element with this meaning; the closest by sound is 頬 (ho, “cheek”, from ancient popo), and the closest by meaning is 太 (futo, “fatness”, from ancient puto).

The same fish name has suggestive overlap with Sahidic Coptic ⲃⲱⲣⲉ (bōre), Bohairic Coptic ⲫⲟⲣⲓ (phori) and ϥⲟⲣⲓ (fori), whence its modern Arabic name بُورِي (būrī).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ぼら [bòrá] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [bo̞ɾa̠]

Noun

ぼら or ボラ • (bora) ^{←ぼら (bora)?}

1. flathead mullet, Mugil cephalus

Usage notes

• As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary).
• This fish has different names (出世魚) depending on regional dialect and the size of the fish. See 鯔. For a fuller list, see ボラ on the Japanese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^ja (in Japanese).