Phrase consisting of木偶(deku,“wooden puppet”) +‎の(no,possessive particle) +‎坊(bō,term of endearment). Thedeku portion is of unknown origin and may have arisen as a standalone term later than as a part of a compound. Theories include:

• Alteration from出狂坊／出来坊(dekurubō), used synonymously, in turn from出狂坊(dekuruibō), literally "little one who has gone mad".
• From手(te,“hand”) +‎傀儡(kugutsu,“puppet”) +‎の +‎坊, throughdekurubō.
• From Sino-Japanese泥偶(deigū,“clay doll”) +‎の +‎坊.

The third theory is problematic semantically and does not account for the intermediarydekurubō pronunciation.^[1]

• (Tokyo)でくのぼー[dèkúnóꜜbòò] (Nakadaka – [3])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key):[de̞kɯ̟no̞bo̞ː]

木偶(でく)の坊(ぼう)• (dekunobō) 

1. doll,puppet
2. uselessperson

   彼(かれ)は木偶(でく)の坊(ぼう)にすぎない。

   Kare wadekunobō ni suginai.

   He is no better than afool.

• Japanese terms spelled with 木
• Japanese terms spelled with 偶
• Japanese terms spelled with 坊 read as ぼう
• Japanese compound terms
• Japanese terms with IPA pronunciation
• Japanese terms with Nakadaka pitch accent (Tōkyō)
• Japanese lemmas
• Japanese nouns
• Japanese terms spelled with first grade kanji
• Japanese terms spelled with secondary school kanji
• Japanese terms with 3 kanji
• Japanese terms with usage examples
• ja:Puppets
• ja:People

• Japanese links with redundant wikilinks
• Japanese links with redundant alt parameters
• Japanese terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys
• Japanese terms with redundant sortkeys
• Pages with entries
• Pages with 1 entry