Chinese

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hundred foot; to be sufficient
simp. and trad.
(百足)
alternative forms 百縮百缩 dialectal Cantonese
百宿 dialectal Cantonese
百叔 dialectal Cantonese

Pronunciation

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Noun

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百足

  1. (literary or Cantonese, Pinghua, dialectal Hakka) centipede (Classifier: c)
  2. (literary) millipede; diplopod

Synonyms

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  • (millipede):

Derived terms

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Sino-Xenic (百足):
  • Japanese: (ひゃく)(そく) (hyakusoku)

Japanese

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百足 (mukade, hyakusoku): a centipede.

Etymology 1

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Kanji in this term
むかで
Grade: 1 Grade: 1
jukujikun
Alternative spellings
蜈蚣
蜈蜙
蝍蛆

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *mukantai, of unknown derivation; some theories include:

  1. a compound of 向かい (mukai, facing, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, continuative or stem form) of verb 向かう (mukau, to face)) +‎ (te, hand), as the centipede's feet come in facing pairs
  2. a compound of (mu, six) +‎ (ka, ten, unusual reading; compare the ga in 五十嵐 (igarashi)) +‎ (te, hand), literally "sixty hands"; centipedes have more or less than one hundred legs
  3. starting as a compound of (momo, hundred) +‎ (ga, ancient possessive particle) +‎ (te, hand), shifting phonetically: /momo ɡa te//mukade/

While the latter two theories seem plausible semantically, the devoicing of ga to ka is quite unusual.

The kanji are jukujikun (熟字訓), from Chinese 百足 (bǎizú).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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百足(むかで) or 百足(ムカデ) (mukade (standard)
(alternative reading hiragana むかぜ, rōmaji mukaze) (Kagoshima dialect)

  1. a centipede
Usage notes
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As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as ムカデ.

Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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Kanji in this term
ひゃく
Grade: 1
そく
Grade: 1
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 百足 (MC paek tsjowk).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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(ひゃく)(そく) (hyakusoku

  1. (rare) a centipede
Usage notes
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The mukade reading is much more common.

See also

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References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

Further reading

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Miyako

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Kanji in this term
Grade: 1 Grade: 1
Alternative spelling
蜈蚣

Noun

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百足(んかじ) (nkaji

  1. a centipede

Okinoerabu

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Kanji in this term
Grade: 1 Grade: 1
Alternative spelling
蜈蚣

Noun

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百足(むかじ) (mukaji

  1. a centipede

Tokunoshima

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Kanji in this term
Grade: 1 Grade: 1
Alternative spelling
蜈蚣

Noun

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百足(ぬかで) (nukade

  1. a centipede