くにふ【九年母】 : kunifu | define meaning

Cognate to Amakusa (Kumamoto) くねぶ kunebu "orange tree"; Kagoshima くねぶ kunebu "(a type of) orange"; Kikai (Araki) っくにばー kkunibaa "orange"; Kikai (Kamikatetsu) っくには kkuniha; Kikai (Onotsu) くねぃふぁー kkunïfaa; Tokunoshima くねぶ kunebu and くねん kunen; Okinoerabu くりぶ kuribu; Yoron and Okinawan くにぶ kunibu and くにふ kunifu; Okinawan (Iheya) くぬーふ kunuufu; Okinawan (Kin) くにぼ kunibo (くにぼぎ kunibogi "orange tree"); Okinawan (Kudaka) くんぶ kunbu "orange tree" (くんぶぬない kunbu nu nai "orange fruit"); Miyako (Irabu, Karimata, Shimajiri, Oura, Yamanaka, Yonaha, Minaai, Kurima, Sunakawa, Tomori, Aragusuku, Bora) ふにｽﾞ funiɿ ~ funiz; Miyako (Ikema, Nishihara) ふにゅー funyuu; Miyako (Nagahama, Nakachi) ふにｳﾞ funiv; Miyako (Kuninaka) ふにう funiu; Miyako (Hirara) ふにーｽﾞ funiiɿ ~ funiiz; Miyako (Nakasuji, Minnajima) ふぬー funuu; Yaeyama ふねぶ funebu; Yaeyama (Ishigaki) ふにん funin; Yaeyama (Hatoma) ふなぶ funabu "orange"; Yonaguni んにん nnin "orange" (んにんき nninki "orange tree"); standard Japanese くねんぼ【九年母】 kunenbo or くねんぶ kunenbu "orange tree". Historically also attested with the spelling くねんほ kunenho in Japanese.

Historical attestations:

• Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam (1603), aka Nippo Jisho (日葡辞書), records "Cunebo. Certa laya de laranjas doçes" (A certain type of sweet orange).
• 混効験集 Konkoukenshuu (1711), "Words of the Royal Palace", records "こかねくねぶ" (kokane kunebu, lit. "golden orange"), which is cognate to modern Okinawan くがにーくにぶ kuganii kunibu "mandarin orange".
• Recorded for the Satsuma dialect in Gonza's works (ca. early 18th century) under the spelling кунѣбь (kunyeb[u]) "orange (fruit)".
• 藥品手引草 Yakuhin tebikigusa (1778), by Kajii Takashige, records "海紅柑（カイコウカン）　日向九年母（ヒウガクネンホ）".
• Vocabulary of the language spoken at the Great Loo-Choo Island, in the Japan Sea (1811), by Herbert John Clifford, records "Koóneeboo... orange, fruit".
• An English and Japanese and Japanese and English Vocabulary (1830), by Walter Henry Medhurst, records "Orange, Kfoo-nen-bo, クネンボ" and "クネンボ, Kfoo-nen-bo, A sweet apple, orange".
• A Japanese and English Dictionary: With an English and Japanese Index (1867), by James Curtis Hepburn, records "Kunembō, クネンボウ, 香橙, n. A kind of large, thick-skinned orange."
• An English-Japanese Dictionary of the Spoken Language (1876), by Ernest Mason Satow, Masakata Ishibashi, records "Orange. n. mikan (c): Seville —, daidai (c); bergamot —, kunembo; — peel, mikan no kawa."
• A New Pocket Dictionary of the English and Japanese Languages (1888), by Yoshio Ichikawa, records "Kunembō, 香橙, 乳柑 n. A kind of large thick-skinned orange."
• Useful Plants of Japan Described and Illustrated (1895), by Dai Nihon Nōkai, describes the Japanese Kunenbo tree as a variety of Citrus aurantium var. sinense, noting that the fruits are not very sweet.
• 俚言集覧 上巻 明治３２ あ−け 増補 (1899), by Ryoua Murata et al., records "「くねんぼ」乳柑子。九年母古名あべ立花といふ香橙なり。".

Discussion:

• The Kikai forms starting with /Qk/ [kˀ] may reflect an initial morpheme that was dropped.