憎い

Japanese

Kanji in this term
にく
Grade: S
kun’yomi
Alternative spellings
憎 (kyūjitai)
悪い

Etymology

From Old Japanese. Cognate with 憎む (nikumu, to hate), 難い (-nikui, difficult [to do], verb suffix).

Pronunciation

  • Tokyo pitch accent of inflected forms of "憎い"
Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary
Stem forms
Continuative (連用形) 憎く くく
[níꜜkùkù]
[nìkúꜜkù]
Terminal (終止形) 憎い [nìkúꜜì]
Attributive (連体形) 憎い [nìkúꜜì]
Key constructions
Informal negative 憎くない くくない
くない
[níꜜkùkùnàì]
[nìkúꜜkùnàì]
Informal past 憎かった くかった
かった
[níꜜkùkàttà]
[nìkúꜜkàttà]
Informal negative past 憎くなかった くくなかった
くなかった
[níꜜkùkùnàkàttà]
[nìkúꜜkùnàkàttà]
Formal 憎いです いです [nìkúꜜìdèsù]
Conjunctive 憎くて くくて
くて
[níꜜkùkùtè]
[nìkúꜜkùtè]
Conditional 憎ければ くければ
ければ
[níꜜkùkèrèbà]
[nìkúꜜkèrèbà]

Adjective

(にく) • (nikui) -i (adverbial (にく) (nikuku))

  1. hateful, detestable, abominable
    • Ise Monogatari (The Tales of Ise), late 800s to early 900s:
      されどにくゝはたあらざりけり。
      Saredo nikuku hata arazarikeri.
      But no one thought him dislikeable.
      → Note that the negative connotations have strengthened over time. The older meaning was milder, closer to dislikeable than the modern hateful.

Inflection

Antonyms

Derived terms

References

  1. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK Publishing, →ISBN
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