むーく・むうく【婿・壻・聟】 : muuku | define meaning

Cognate to Akita, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata and Nagano (far-northern Nagano) もご mogo; Fukushima (Aizu), Iwate, Ibaraki (Oarai), Saitama, Tochigi, Niigata, Nagano (northern Nagano), Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, Ehime もこ moko; Shimane んこ nko; Shimane (Daikon) and Tottori みこ miko; Kikai もっか mokka and むこ muko; Amami (northern Amami Oshima) もほー mohoo; Amami (southern Amami Oshima) もー moo; Tokunoshima むく muku (in むくどぅん muku-dun); Okinoerabu むっくゎ mukkwa and むんくゎ munkwa; Yoron むーくゎー muukwaa; Amami (central Amami Oshima) and Kunigami (Benoki, Ogimi) むふ mufu; Kunigami (Ogimi) and Okinawa (Shuri, Yomitan) むーく muuku; Okinawa (Yomitan), Miyako (Minna, Tarama, Uruka) and Yaeyama (Hatoma, Ishigaki) むく muku; Yaeyama (Aragusuku Shimoji) むほ muho; Yaeyama (Hateruma) むぐ mugu; Yonaguni むぐ mugu and むんぐ mungu; Hachijo むこ muko; and standard Japanese むこ【婿】 muko "son-in-law".

Reconstructions:

• Alexander Vovin (2020) gives *muko for Western Old Japanese and *moko for proto-Ryukyuan.
• Alexander Vovin (2015) gives *moko for proto-Japanese-Ryukyuan, *muko₁ for Old Japanese, and *moko for proto-Ryukyuan.
• Bjarke Frellesvig and John Whitman (2008) reconstruct *mwokwo ~ *mukwo for Central Old Japanese and *moko for proto-Ryukyuan.
• Moriyo Shimabukuro (2007) reconstructs proto-mainland Japanese *mwokwo˩.
• Samuel E. Martin (1987) reconstructs *mwokwo for Western Old Japanese.

Historical attestations:

• Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam (1603), aka Nippo Jisho (日葡辞書), records "Muco. Genro."
• Magazin von Merkwurdigen neuen Reisebeschrei-Bungen (1792), volume 7, records "Bräutigamm, fannamoko" for bridegroom and "Schwiegersohn, Yitjusi" for son-in-law.
• An English and Japanese and Japanese and English Vocabulary (1830), by Walter Henry Medhurst, records "Mooko, a son in law".
• English-Loochooan Dictionary (1846-1851), by Bernard Jean Bettelheim, records  "son in law, mūkú".
• Sketches of Japanese Manners and Customs (1867), by Jacob Mortimer Wier Silver, records "hanna-moko, or bride-groom".
• “A” Japanese and English Dictionary: With an English and Japanese Index (1867), by James Curtis Hepburn, records "Muko, ムコ, 婿, n. Son in law."
• An English-Japanese Dictionary of the Spoken Language (1876), by Ernest Mason Satow and Masakata Ishibashi, records the periphrastic phrase "son-in-law, n. musume no muko".

Notes:

• Various Japanese dialects use honorific suffixes, such as さん -san or どの【殿】 -dono. Examples include Niigata (Sasagawa) むこさ muko-sa; Kumamoto (Amakusa) むこさん muko-san; Kumamoto (Amakusa) and Kagoshima むこどん muko-don; and Tokunoshima むくどぅん muku-dun "son-in-law".
• Northern Ryukyuan varieties with endings in *-a or *-Qwa are the result of a fused diminutive.
• The terms [KK.50] 毛古  *mwokwo and [NSK.42] 毛胡 *mokwo, glossed as "ally, partner", are attested in Old Japanese. However, their relation to the modern term "son-in-law" is unclear.