牡蠣

牡蠣

1. oyster

Probably a shift from either:

• 掻き (kaki, “scratching, scraping”), the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 掻く (kaku, “to scratch, to scrape”), from the way that oysters are harvested by scraping them off of the oyster bed
• 欠き (kaki, “breaking, chipping”), the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 欠く (kaku, “to break, to chip”), from the way that one must break or chip an oyster shell to get at the meat

The spelling is from Chinese 牡蠣, as an example of jukujikun (熟字訓).

• (Irregular reading)
  • (Tokyo) か​き [káꜜkì] (Atamadaka – [1])[1][2][3]
  • IPA^(key): [ka̠kʲi]

牡蠣 (kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai kanji 牡蛎, hiragana かき, katakana カキ, rōmaji kaki)

1. oyster (edible)

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts, as カキ.

From Middle Chinese 牡蠣 (MC məu^X liᴇi^H).

• On’yomi
  • (Tokyo) ぼれー [bòréé] (Heiban – [0])[1]
  • IPA^(key): [bo̞ɾe̞ː]

牡蠣 (hiragana ぼれい, rōmaji borei)

1. an oyster
2. roasted and powdered oyster shell, used in antacids, sedatives, and as a bird feed additive

• 真珠貝 (しんじゅがい) (shinjugai, “pearl oyster”) (inedible)

• Etymology entry for 牡蠣 at Gogen Jiten (Etymology Dictionary; in Japanese): http://gogen-allguide.com/ka/kaki_kai.html
• Etymology entry for 牡蠣 at Japan Dictionary (in Japanese): http://www.nihonjiten.com/data/45551.html