もし

See also: もじ

Japanese

Alternative spelling
若し

From Old Japanese; attested in the Man'yōshū of 759.^[1]^[2] In turn, reconstructed as deriving from Proto-Japonic *məsi.

もし • (moshi)

若し: [from 759] if; supposing
もし来(こ)られたら来(き)なさい。
Moshi koraretara kinasai.
Come if you can. (informal)
若し: [from 830] perhaps

もし • (moshi)

The word is used at the start of the clause serves as a signal that it's conditional and can be omitted. Other grammatical forms and words are still used to indicate the condition.

For pronunciation and definitions of もし – see the following entry.

【模試】	[noun] Clipping of 模擬試験 (mogi shiken, “mock exam”).

(This term, もし (moshi), is the hiragana spelling of the above term.)
For a list of all kanji read as もし, see Category:Japanese kanji read as もし.)

^ Omodaka, Hisataka (1967) 時代別国語大辞典上代編 [The dictionary of historical Japanese: Old Japanese] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN, pages 738-739
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 “もし【若】”, in 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, “Nihon Kokugo Daijiten”) ‎^[1] (in Japanese), 2nd edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 2000, released online 2007, →ISBN, concise edition entry available here (Note: Dialectal meanings, etymological theories, pronunciation including modern, dialectal, and historical information, Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai, historical dictionaries containing this word, and the kanji spellings in those dictionaries have been omitted.)
^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN