みみしい

Japanese

Alternative spellings
聾 (rare) 耳癈 (rare)

Etymology

Compound of 耳 (mimi, “ear; sense of hearing”) +‎ 癈 (shii, “loss of faculty: numbness, blindness, deafness, etc.”, compounding element, originally the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of Old Japanese verb 癈ふ (shipu), modern 癈いる (shiiru, “to lose a sense: to go numb, blind, deaf, etc.”)).

First attested in the late 800s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mʲimʲiɕiː]

• Pitch accent uncertain.

Noun

みみしい • (mimishī) ^{←みみしひ (mimisifi)?}

1. 聾, 耳癈: [late 800s – ???] (archaic, possibly obsolete) deafness, deaf

   Synonyms: (current) 聾 (rō), つんぼ (tsunbo, derogatory), 難聴 (nanchō)

2. 聾, 耳癈: [late 800s – ???] (archaic, possibly obsolete) a deaf person

   Synonyms: (current) 聾者 (rōsha), 強度難聴者 (kyōdo nanchōsha, literally “severely hearing-impaired person”)