そもち【書物】 : somochi | define meaning

Cognate to Akita しょもち shomochi and そもち somochi; Kagoshima and Miyazaki (Morokata) しょもっ shomoq and そもっ somoq; Kikai (Wan) しむとぅ shimutu; Amami (Koniya) しょもっ shomot; Amami (Shodon) しもち shimochi and しもっ shimot; Tokunoshima (Asama) しゅむーつィ shumuutsï; Tokunoshima (Isen) しゅむつぃ shumutsi; Okinawan (Shuri, Kumejima: Torishima) and Yaeyama (Hatoma) すむち sumuchi; Okinawan しむち shimuchi; Okinawan and Yaeyama (Iriomote: Sonai) しゅむち shumuchi; Miyako (Minna, Tarama) しゅむつｽ shumutsɿ; Miyako (Hirara, Nishihara, Tarama) and Yaeyama (Ishigaki, Miyara) しゅむつィ shumutsï; Miyako (Ogami) [simuks]; Yaeyama (Taketomi) shũũchi; Yaeyama (Hateruma) すィむつィ sïmutsï; Yonaguni すんく゚てぃ・すく゚てぃ sunnguti and すーてぃ suuti; and standard Japanese しょもつ【書物】 shomotsu "book, books". Ultimately of Sino-Japanese or Sinitic origin, from 【書】 "writing, written work, document, book" and 【物】 "thing".

Historical Japanese attestations:

• 節用集大全 Setsuyō-shū taizen (1680) and 集義和書 Shūgi washo (1709) include usages of 書物.
• 都鄙問答 Tohi mondō (1739), by 石田梅岩, contains various phrases such as "書物ヲ讀コト shomotsu wo yomu koto".
• An English and Japanese and Japanese and English Vocabulary (1830), by Walter Henry Medhurst, records "Book, S'yo-mots', シヨ モツ, 書物".
• ペルリ提督日本遠征記 Peruri teitoku Nihon ensei-ki (1856), Volume 1, by Matthew Calbraith Perry, records 書物 for book.
• Dictionnaire français-anglais-japonais (1866), by Father Mermet de Cachon, records "chomotsou" for "book".
• The Phoenix: A Monthly Magazine for China, Japan and Eastern Asia (1872), Volume 3, records the translations "shomotsu" and "shomotsŭ" for "book".
• A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary (1872), Volume 1, by James Curtis Hepburn, records "shomotsu" and "sho-motsu" for "book", especially in compound words such as "Shomotsu ya... book-seller, book-store".
• Transactions The Asiatic Society Of Japan (1915), Vol. 43 Pt. 2, records "somotsu, books" for the Kagoshima dialect.

Historical Ryukyuan attestations:

• Vocabulary of the language spoken at the Great Loo-Choo Island, in the Japan Sea (1818), by Herbert John Clifford, records "sheemootsee [shimutsi]... book".
• English-Loochooan Dictionary (1846-1851), by Bernard Jean Bettelheim, records "Book, shimutzi, shumutsi".
• Okinawan language dictionary (沖縄語典, 1896), by Masayo Nakamoto, records the entry しゆむつィ shiyumutsï (shumutsï) (書物).