ぜんまい

See also: せんまい

Japanese

For pronunciation and definitions of ぜんまい – see the following entries.

【薇】H [noun] [from 1709] Japanese flowering fern (Osmunda japonica), of which the young fiddleheads are edible Alternative spellings 紫萁, 狗脊, ゼンマイ

【発条】 [noun] [from 1732] spring (device made of flexible material), specifically the spiral torsion kind commonly used in clockwork that is coiled into a disc shape like a fern fiddlehead [noun] [from 1812] (possibly dated) Short for 発条仕掛 (zenmai-jikake, “clockwork mechanism, clockwork”). Alternative spelling 撥条

(This term, ぜんまい (zenmai), is the hiragana spelling of the above terms.) For a list of all kanji read as ぜんまい, see Category:Japanese kanji read as ぜんまい.)