太刀

Japanese

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

太刀

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Tachi

太刀 (tachi): rear view of a samurai with a tachi slung from his waist.

Alternative spellings
大刀𫥲

/tati/ → /tat͡ɕi/

From Old Japanese. Appears in the Nihon Shoki of 720 CE.^[1]

Derived from 断ち (tachi), the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of verb 断つ (tatsu, “to sever”).^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

The kanji spelling is a shift from the original Chinese 大刀 (dàdāo, literally “great blade”), indicating straight swords before the Heian period, and later indicating curved swords.

太刀(たち) • (tachi)

a type of longsword (as opposed to the shorter katana)
- 720, Nihon Shoki, (poem 20):
  
  椰句毛多菟(やくもたつ)伊頭毛多鶏流餓(いづもたけるが)波鶏流(はける)多知(たち)菟頭邏佐波磨枳(つづらさはまき)佐微那辞珥(さみなしに)阿波礼(あはれ) [Man'yōgana]
  八(や)雲(くも)立(た)つ出雲(いづも)たけるが佩(は)ける太刀(たち)黒葛(つづら)多(さは)巻(ま)きさ身(み)なしにあはれ [Modern spelling]
  ya kumo tatsu Izumo-takeru ga hakeru tachi tsuzura sawamaki saminashi ni aware
  (please add an English translation of this example)
a sword positioned with the blade facing down when worn (as opposed to the katana, which is worn with the blade facing upward)

太刀(たち) • (Tachi)

↑ ^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
^ Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN