🌏 Region(s): Honshu (Standard)
ざんのうお【ざんの魚・犀魚】 : zan no uo | define meaning
zan no uo
Pronunciation: /zaNnouo/
Definition
Noun
- Dugong (sp. Dugong dugon)
- Mermaid
Etymology
Ultimately a compound of ざん zan "dugong", the genitive particle ぬ nu, and いゆ【魚】 iyu "fish".
Cognate with Kunigami (Oku) だんぬいる dan nu iru; Okinawa (Shuri) ざんぬいゆ zan nu iyu; Yaeyama (Hateruma) ざんぬゆ zan nu yu "dugong; mermaid". Borrowed into Japanese during the late 19th century as ざんのいを zan no iwo and ざんのうを zan no uwo "dugong", now spelled ざんのいお【犀魚】 zan no io and ざんのうお zan no uo respectively, with some early 20th-century works also adding the definition of "walrus".
Compare Kunigami (Oku) だん dan; Okinawa, Miyako (Ikema) and Tarama じゃん jan; Okinawa (Kudaka, Shuri, Uruma), Miyako (Hisamatsu) and Yaeyama (Hateruma, Hatoma, Kuroshima, Miyara, Kabira) ざん zan; Yaeyama (Aragusuku) ざぬ zanu; Yaeyama (Iriomote: Komi) and Yonaguni (Sonai) ざの zano; and Yonaguni (Sonai) ざーの zaano "dugong; mermaid". Possibly cognate with standard Japanese ぞう【象】 zou "elephant" (< Middle Chinese *zjangX).
Historical attestations
- Kenkyusha's New School Dictionary: (English-Japanese) (1890), published by Kenkyusha, records the form ざんのいを zan no iwo in the entry "Dugong 名《動》儒艮（じゅごん）、ざんのいを。【マライ語】".
Spelling
| Orthography | Form |
|---|---|
| Kanji | ざんの魚 犀魚 |
| Kana | ざんのうお |
| Romanization | zan no uo |
| Pronunciation (IPA) | /zaNnouo/ |
意味：じゅごん・ジュゴン【儒艮・儒良】