Talk:毛

Etymology / reconstruction

@Chuterix, do we have any hard evidence that supports the existence of 毛 as /ka/?

The only lead I'm finding is the NKD's entry for 白髪, where they opine 『(上代は「しらか」か。「か」は「け(毛)」の交替形で、元来は白い毛をいったものという)』. (Etym missing from Kotobank's version, unfortunately.)

However, for all other terms that have 被覆・露出 forms like this with alternating vowels, the 被覆 form ending in /a/ only appears when the word is not the last one in a compound. So I don't think the か in しらか can be 毛. Nor can I find any word starting with 毛 where this is read as か.

Your recent edits also point to 鬘 (katsura) as deriving from 毛. However, my local NKD states that this word appears as かづら until the Muromachi period, and might derive instead from 『「かみ(髪)つら(蔓)」の変化』. Such a derivation would explain the nasalization and voicing.

We appear to be left without any 交替形: evidence for /ke/, but nothing really for /ka/. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:14, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Note: The NKD etymologies (and the Nihon Shoki attestation) I referenced are from Sakura Paris (a site where an instance of NKD seems to be hosted). A lot (if not all but at least the original NKD 1988) of the etymologies are there. That included the shiraga and katsura etymology. But didn't know kadura was the initial reading until the Muromachi Period.

See here and click on "L052534". However the siraka/ga seems to be spelled "白髪".

I didn’t compare 髪 (kami, “hair of the head”) because that seems to derived from 上 (kami, “top”) according to the NKD.

The edition of the Daijiten most likely changed on Kotobank; see your talk page for more info. Chuterix (talk) 23:53, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Also note that ke is in otsu pronunciation ke₂, otherwise it would be kye (ke₁). Chuterix (talk) 12:44, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

角先生 (1908)

1908 二月, 吳趼人, 角先生, in 月月小說, volume 14, page 206:

香港小銀圓，背有文曰「香港一毫」。故粵人稱小銀圓，皆以毫計，如一毫、二毫之類。市肆記帳，又常減筆寫作「毛」字。上海某廣東店，向用同鄉人執事，旋以與客幫人交易，言語不通，兼延上海人某甲為帳屋之助。甲視各帳，多二毛、三毛等字，不解所謂，以問同事。同事曰：「此廣東人寫法，即'角'字也。如一毛即係一角，二毛即係二角。以後都可改寫角字。」甲頷之。及月底開寫帳單，客戶中有毛姓者，甲竟寫作「角先生台照」。 RcAlex36 (talk) 14:14, 7 July 2024 (UTC)