| Kanji in this term | |
|---|---|
| 辞 | 書 |
| じ Grade: 4 | しょ Grade: 2 |
| on'yomi | |
| Alternative spelling |
|---|
| 辭書(kyūjitai) |
A repurposing of older term辞書(jisho,“letter of resignation”,see below), based on a reanalysis of the constituent characters辞(ji,“resignation, quitting; word”) +書(sho,“writing, record, document, book”). Influenced byMiddle Chinese-derived term辞典(jiten,“dictionary”), wherein the辞 character expresses the meaningword fromMiddle Chinese辭 /辞(zi), instead of the meaningresignation orquitting fromMiddle Chinese辤(zi). Note that both of these older character forms were later conflated in bothJapanese andChinese into the simplified version辞, with theword meaning becoming dominant inChinese.
First appearance in Japanese with thedictionary sense might be the 1595 publication by the Jesuits of the羅葡日辞書 (Ra-Ho-Nichi Jisho, “Latin-Portuguese-Japanese Dictionary”), alternate titleDictionarium Latino Lusitanicum, ac Iaponicum.[1]
Compare modernMandarin辭書 /辞书(císhū,“dictionary, lexicon”), possibly reborrowed from or otherwise influenced by the Japanese.
| Kanji in this term | |
|---|---|
| 辞 | 書 |
| じ Grade: 4 | しょ Grade: 2 |
| on'yomi | |
| Alternative spelling |
|---|
| 辭書(kyūjitai) |
FromMiddle Chinese compound辤書 /辤书(zi syo, literally“quit + writing”).
| Kanji in this term | |
|---|---|
| 辞 | 書 |
| じ Grade: 4 | そ Grade: 2 |
| irregular | |
| Alternative spelling |
|---|
| 辭書(kyūjitai) |
The直音表記(chokuon hyōki, literally“straight-sound spelling”) ofjisho above. Most common from theHeian through theMuromachi periods.[5]
It is unclear if the pronunciation itself also shifted, or just the spelling.
