憎い

Japanese
Kanji in this term
憎
にく
Grade: S
kun’yomi

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Adjective

憎い (-i inflection, hiragana にくい, rōmaji nikui)

  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
Inflection of 憎い
Stem forms
Imperfective (未然形) 憎かろ にくかろ nikukaro
Continuative (連用形) 憎く にくく nikuku
Terminal (終止形) 憎い にくい nikui
Attributive (連体形) 憎い にくい nikui
Hypothetical (仮定形) 憎けれ にくけれ nikukere
Imperative (命令形) 憎かれ にくかれ nikukare
Key constructions
Informal negative 憎くない にくくない nikuku nai
Informal past 憎かった にくかった nikukatta
Informal negative past 憎くなかった にくくなかった nikuku nakatta
Formal 憎いです にくいです nikui desu
Formal negative 憎くないです にくくないです nikuku nai desu
Formal past 憎かったです にくかったです nikukatta desu
Formal negative past 憎くなかったです にくくなかったです nikuku nakatta desu
Conjunctive 憎くて にくくて nikukute
Conditional 憎ければ にくければ nikukereba
Provisional 憎かったら にくかったら nikukattara
Volitional 憎かろう にくかろう nikukarō
Adverbial 憎く にくく nikuku
Degree 憎さ にくさ nikusa

Antonyms

Derived terms
Derived terms

References
  1. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
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