秋刀魚

See also: 秋刀鱼

Chinese

		autumn; fall; harvest time autumn; fall; harvest time; a swing	knife	fish
trad. (秋刀魚)		秋	刀	魚
simp. (秋刀鱼)		秋	刀	鱼

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): qiūdāoyú

  (Zhuyin): ㄑㄧㄡ ㄉㄠ ㄩˊ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): cau¹ dou¹ jyu^4-2
• Southern Min (Teochew, Peng'im): ciu¹ do¹ he⁵

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: qiūdāoyú
    • Zhuyin: ㄑㄧㄡ ㄉㄠ ㄩˊ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: cioudaoyú
    • Wade–Giles: chʻiu¹-tao¹-yü²
    • Yale: chyōu-dāu-yú
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: chioudauyu
    • Palladius: цюдаоюй (cjudaojuj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡ɕʰi̯oʊ̯⁵⁵ tɑʊ̯⁵⁵ y³⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: cau¹ dou¹ jyu^4-2
    • Yale: chāu dōu yú
    • Cantonese Pinyin: tsau¹ dou¹ jy^4-2
    • Guangdong Romanization: ceo¹ dou¹ yu^4-2
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰɐu̯⁵⁵ tou̯⁵⁵ jyː²¹⁻³⁵/
• Southern Min
  • (Teochew)
    • Peng'im: ciu¹ do¹ he⁵
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: tshiu to hṳ̂
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰiu³³⁻²³ to³³⁻²³ hɯ⁵⁵/

Noun

秋刀魚

1. Pacific saury (Cololabis saira)

Japanese

Kanji in this term
秋	刀	魚
さんま
Grade: 2	Grade: 2	Grade: 2
jukujikun

Alternative spelling
三馬 (dated, rare)

秋刀魚 (sanma): a Pacific saury, also called a mackerel pike.

Etymology

Uncertain, theories include:

• An alteration from earlier compound 狭 (sa, “narrow”, in reference to the slender body of the fish) + 真魚 (mana, “edible fish”):

  /samana/ → /samuma/ → /samːa/

• An alternative derivation suggests 狭間 (sama, “narrow space”) + 魚 (na, “fish”, ancient term, and part of the roots of modern reading sakana), where ma again references the narrowness of the fish's body, but this is problematic, as 間 (ma) can only refer to the space between things, not the width of a thing itself.
• Another possibility is that sanma is cognate with 鯖 (saba, “mackerel”). The two kinds of fish are somewhat similar, and sanma is even called mackerel pike in English. In addition, the voiced plosive /b/ sound in modern Japanese appears to have been pre-nasalized in Old Japanese as something closer to /mb/, and there is evidence of /b/ ⇔ /m/ alternation in various terms in Japanese. There is also Ainu サㇺバ (samba, “mackerel”), likely a borrowing either into or from Japanese. This suggests that modern sanma may have arisen as an /m/ ⇔ /b/ alteration of older sanba.

The 秋刀魚 spelling likely arose quite recently in 1922 during the Taisho period, when a popular poem by Haruo Satō used this spelling. It alludes to the fish's harvest season of autumn (秋) and its blade-shaped body (刀).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) さんま [sàńmá] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [sã̠mːa̠]

Noun

秋刀魚(さんま) or 秋刀魚(サンマ) • (sanma) 

1. the Pacific saury or mackerel pike, Cololabis saira

   Synonym: さいら (saira)

Usage notes

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as サンマ.

Derived terms

• 秋刀魚(さんま)飯(めし) (sanmameshi)

Proverbs

• 目(め)黒(ぐろ)の秋刀魚(さんま) (meguro no sanma)

Further reading

• Etymology entry for 秋刀魚 at Japan Dictionary (in Japanese): http://www.nihonjiten.com/data/45619.html
• Etymology entry for 秋刀魚 at Gogen Jiten (Etymology Dictionary; in Japanese): http://gogen-allguide.com/sa/sanma.html