食う
Japanese
| Kanji in this term |
|---|
| 食 |
| く Grade: 2 |
| kun’yomi |
Alternative forms
Etymology
/kupu/ → /kuɸu/ → */kuwu/ → /kuu/
From Old Japanese.[1]
The medial /w/ vanishes because Japanese does not have a /wu/ phoneme. It surfaces though in various conjugations, such as the negative form kuwanai or the passive form kuwareru.
Possibly cognate with 口 (kuchi, “mouth”).
Verb
食う (godan conjugation, hiragana くう, rōmaji kuu, historical hiragana くふ)
- to put something in one's mouth
- (men's speech, vulgar) to eat, to devour
- 誰でも昼には飯を食う。
- Dare de mo hiru ni wa meshi o kuu.
- Everyone eats food at noon.
- 誰でも昼には飯を食う。
- to make a living, to live; to survive
- to tease, to taunt, to make light of, to make fun of; to torment
- (of an insect, usually used in the passive) to bite, to sting
- 昨晩は、蚊に食われた。
- Sakuban wa, ka ni kuwareta.
- I got bitten by a mosquito last night.
- 昨晩は、蚊に食われた。
Conjugation
Conjugation of "食う" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)
| Stem forms | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Imperfective (未然形) | 食わ | くわ | kuwa |
| Continuative (連用形) | 食い | くい | kui |
| Terminal (終止形) | 食う | くう | kuu |
| Attributive (連体形) | 食う | くう | kuu |
| Hypothetical (仮定形) | 食え | くえ | kue |
| Imperative (命令形) | 食え | くえ | kue |
| Key constructions | |||
| Passive | 食われる | くわれる | kuwareru |
| Causative | 食わせる 食わす |
くわせる くわす |
kuwaseru kuwasu |
| Potential | 食える | くえる | kueru |
| Volitional | 食おう | くおう | kuō |
| Negative | 食わない | くわない | kuwanai |
| Negative continuative | 食わず | くわず | kuwazu |
| Formal | 食います | くいます | kuimasu |
| Perfective | 食った | くった | kutta |
| Conjunctive | 食って | くって | kutte |
| Hypothetical conditional | 食えば | くえば | kueba |
Synonyms
Derived terms
Derived terms
- 崩ゆ, 潰ゆ, 壊ゆ (kuyu): obsolete for 崩える, 潰える, 壊える
- 崩, 潰 (kue): erosion
- 崩える, 潰える, 壊える (kueru): to erode, to be eaten away, to fall apart, to break
- 桑 (kuwa): a mulberry
- 銜う, 啣える, 咥える (kuwau): obsolete for 銜える, 啣える, 咥える
- 加う (kuwau): obsolete for 加える
- 銜える, 啣える, 咥える (kuwaeru): to hold in one's mouth
- 加える (kuwaeru): to add something, to increase or develop something; to inflict
- 加わる (kuwawaru): to increase, to grow; to be added on to something else; to join in
References
- 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
- 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
- 1997, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Fifth Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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