かげろう

Japanese

Etymology 1

Derived as a verb from the noun 陽炎 (kagerō, “heat haze, heat shimmer”).[1]

The shadow sense may derive instead from verb 陰る (kageru, “to become shady, to become shadowed”), as kagera (the 未然形 mizenkei, “imperfective form”) + ふ (fu, auxiliary verb indicating repeated or continuous action): /kaɡerafu/ → /kaɡerau/ → /kaɡerɔu/ → /kaɡerou/

That said, the kage in kageru is ultimately cognate with the kage in the noun kagerō.

Pronunciation
  • (Tokyo) かげろー [kàgéróó] (Heiban – [0])
  • IPA(key): [ka̠ɡe̞ɾo̞ː]

Verb

かげろう • (kagerō) intransitive †yodan

  1. (archaic) to shimmer, to flicker
  2. (archaic) to become shadowed, to fall into shadow
Usage notes

Only listed with 四段活用 (yodan katsuyō, “quadrigrade conjugation”),[1][2] one of the conjugation patterns for Classical Japanese, indicating that this fell out of common use before the modern period. Note that the Volitional form in the table below should therefore be かげろわう kagerowau instead.

Conjugation
Conjugation of "かげろう" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)
Katsuyōkei ("stem forms")
Mizenkei ("imperfective") かげろわ kagerowa
Ren’yōkei ("continuative") かげろい kageroi
Shūshikei ("terminal") かげろう kagerou
Rentaikei ("attributive") かげろう kagerou
Kateikei ("hypothetical") かげろえ kageroe
Meireikei ("imperative") かげろえ kageroe
Key constructions
Passive かげろわれる kagerowareru
Causative かげろわせる
かげろわす		 kagerowaseru
kagerowasu
Potential かげろえる kageroeru
Volitional かげろおう kageroō
Negative かげろわない kagerowanai
Negative continuative かげろわず kagerowazu
Formal かげろいます kageroimasu
Perfective かげろった kagerotta
Conjunctive かげろって kagerotte
Hypothetical conditional かげろえば kageroeba

Etymology 2

Reading of various kanji compounds.

Noun

かげろう • (kagerō) 

  1. 陰郎: during the Edo period, a boy kabuki actor who has not yet appeared on stage; a boy prostitute at banquets
  2. 陽炎: heat shimmer, heat haze
  3. 蜉蝣, 蜻蛉: a mayfly or dayfly; ephemera, something ephemeral or fleeting

References
  1. Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.