米の由来(The Origin of RICE)
2007年11月7日(木曜日)
Wednesday, November seventh, two thousand and seven
どんな言語でもそうですけど、沢山の言葉の由来がありますよね。実際、それらの起源を知ることは、私にとって、とても面白いです。今日は、日本の面白い雑学を紹介します。(^^♪
『米(こめ)』という漢字を知ってますよね？この漢字は、『八』『十』『八』の三つの漢字が組み合わさって出来ているそうです。その昔、農業が発達していない頃、米を育てるには非常に手間がかかりました。その手間の数が88だったそうです。詳しくは知りませんが・・・(^_^;
『米』という漢字が、88を意味するところから、日本では88歳になったとき、『米寿』という長寿のお祝いをします。『寿』は、『お祝い事』とか『おめでたい事』といったような意味です。
実は、私は現在44歳。ちょうど、88歳の半分ですね。(笑)
In any language, there are lots of interesting derivations of words. It attracts me to find out the original of any word actually. Let me introduce an interesting Japanese general knowledge today. :D
You probably know this Chinese character(=Kanji), "米(kome)". It is said that the character consists of three kanjis, "八(hachi)", "十(juu)" and "八(hachi)". "八十八(hachi juu hachi)" means eighty eight in Japanese language. A long time ago, when Chinese or Japanese agriculture was less well-developed than it is now, people used to take a lot of trouble over growing rice. I hear the number of procedure to grow rice was eighty eight. I don't know the details though...
Anyway, since "米" signifies 88, Japanese people celebrate their friends' or families' long life when they reach the age of 88, that's called "米寿(beiju)". "寿" means "celebration", "happy event" or the like in Japanese.
Actually, I'm 44 years old now. So... just the half of 88.
derivation: 由来
general knowledge: 雑学
be less well-developed than ～: ～より発達していない
take a lot of trouble over something: ～に手間がかかる
signify: 表す、意味する
or the like: または同種のもの
4 comments:
wow!!
thanks dude.
i learnt something today...
My mother used to grow rice when she was a child but she never talked about what procedures were required.. this topic always come up when she's moaning about my career... (><)
I don't think she understand what graphic design is.. oh well.
Hi akira,
Anytime. :D I'm glad if this article is informative for you. Ummm... It sounds like a generation gap or the like, huh?
Yeah, I think so.. I guess the older we are, the less we understand because the world around us, as it's constantly changing.
Just the other day my father was in a good mood, he told me many stories of his hard life, tried to explain in words only, what home was like when they we're teenagers (again). Eventually he gave me the name of the village he's from, so i searched for photos online and found them, I dare say both my parents were complete gob smacked how people like us, can pull up photos of his home village online, then pull up archives too for comparisons.
Umm.. One thing lead to another and the Tale of Japanese invasion come to light... My father trully object to me coming to Japan.. then again, i don't suppose my father has seen the changes since then... though he does appriciate my J-frends - which ain't that bad.
Well.. We had a good night..
For me, I can't imagine what life would be like without a computer... Think I'd die of shear boredom, no?
That's good for you. Sometimes it's a great and useful opportunity to be told old stories by elder people.
Yeah, so would I. I can't live without computers and other gadgets, such as cell phones.
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