雑魚

Japanese

Kanji in this term
雑	魚
ざこ
Grade: 5	Grade: 2
jukujikun

Alternative spellings
雜魚 (kyūjitai) 雑喉

Alternative forms

ざぁこ (zāko) - interjection associated with the fictional メスガキ (mesugaki) trope

Etymology

This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.
Particularly: “Seems to be a compound, but of what? Was there a shift from an older reading? The expected on'yomi reading would be zatsu-go > zaggo or (with final 喉) zatsu-kō > zakko.”

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

雑魚

Wikipedia ^ja

Pronunciation

(Tokyo) ざこ [záꜜkò] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1]
IPA^(key): [d͡za̠ko̞]

(Tokyo) じゃこ [jáꜜkò] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1]
IPA^(key): [d͡ʑa̠ko̞]

IPA^(key): [iza̠ko̞]

Noun

雑魚(ざこ) or 雑魚(じゃこ) or 雑魚(いざこ) or 雑魚(ざっこう) or 雑魚(ざっこ) or 雑魚(ざこう) • (zako or jako or izako or zakkō or zakko or zakō)

small fry; small, worthless fishes, Coarse fishes with low market value
(by analogy) a weak or useless person

Usage notes

Readings 4, 5, and 6 are all obsolete.

Derived terms

Descendants

→ Chinese: 雜魚／杂鱼

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

[DJR-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

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