貧弱

See also: 贫弱

Chinese

poor
 
weak; feeble; young; inferior
trad. (貧弱)
simp. (贫弱)

Pronunciation


Adjective

貧弱

  1. poor and weak; impoverished and decrepit

Japanese

Kanji in this term
ひん
Grade: 5
じゃく
Grade: 2
on’yomi

Etymology

Probably from Middle Chinese compound 貧弱 (bin nyak, literally poor + weak). Compare modern Mandarin 貧弱贫弱 (pínruò, “poor and weak”).

Alternatively, may have been coined in Japan of Middle Chinese-derived elements (hin, poor) + (jaku, weak).

Pronunciation

Adjective

貧弱 (-na inflection, hiragana ひんじゃく, rōmaji hinjaku)

  1. poor, feeble, scanty
     (じょう) (きょう)は、 (かれ)貧弱 (ひんじゃく) () ()では (ひょう) (げん)できるものではなかった。
    Jōkyō wa, kare no hinjaku na goi de wa hyōgen dekiru mono de wa na katta.
    With his poor vocabulary, he/she was unable to explain the situation in words.
    (literally, “The situation was not a thing that could be described in his/her poor vocabulary.”)

Inflection

Antonyms

Noun

貧弱 (hiragana ひんじゃく, rōmaji hinjaku)

  1. meagerness, scantiness

References

  1. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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