動く

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *onkəku, as **unkəku is not allowed due to Arisaka's second law. Derived as a compound of うご (ugo, a 擬態語 (gitaigo, “mimetic word”) imitative of something crawling or creeping; compare the sound shapes of roots wrig- or wig- in English wriggle, wiggle) +‎ く (ku, verb-forming suffix).[1] Compare also the related adverb うごうご (ugougo, “wrigglingly, squirmlingly, creepingly: moving in continuous small increments”).

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) うご​く [ùgóꜜkù] (Nakadaka – [2])[2]
  • IPA^(key): [ɯ̟ᵝɡo̞kɯ̟ᵝ]

動く (intransitive, godan conjugation, hiragana うごく, rōmaji ugoku)

1. to move
   1. to stir, shake, shift, swing
      • 動 (うご)くな！国際警察 (こくさいけいさつ)だ。

        Ugoku na! Kokusai keisatsu da.

        Interpol! Don't move!

      • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 10, poem 2176), text here:

        秋田苅 (あきたかる)、苫手 (とまで)揺 (うごく)奈 (な)利 (り)、白露志 (しらつゆし)、置穂田無跡 (おくほだなしと)、告尓来良思 (つげにきぬらし)

        aki ta karu, tomade ugoku nari, shiratsuyu shi, oku hoda nashi to, tsuge ni kinu rashi

        The autumn-harvest rush-mat shelter moves [in the wind], as if [the wind] has come to tell us that there are no more fields full of ripe and dew-laden grain...

   2. (as of a machine or device) to operate, run, go, work
   3. (as of a person or group) to work, go into action
   4. (emotionally) to be moved, touched, influenced
   5. to change, vary, fluctuate, waver

• 動 (うご)かす (ugokasu): to move (transitive)
• うごうご (ugougo): wrigglingly, squirmlingly, creepingly: moving in continuous small increments
• 蠢 (うごめ)く (ugomeku): to wriggle, to squirm

Rare dialectal variation on ugoku above.[1][2]

• Kun’yomi
  • IPA^(key): [iɡo̞kɯ̟ᵝ]

動く (intransitive, godan conjugation, hiragana いごく, rōmaji igoku)

1. (archaic, possibly obsolete) to move

Rare dialectal variation on ugoku above.[1]

• Kun’yomi
  • IPA^(key): [o̞ɡo̞kɯ̟ᵝ]

動く (intransitive, godan conjugation, hiragana おごく, rōmaji ogoku)

1. (obsolete) to move