憎い

Japanese

Kanji in this term
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

Antonyms

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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