並瓢虫

Japanese

Kanji in this term
並	瓢	虫
なみ Grade: 6	てんとう
	Jinmeiyō	Grade: 1
kun'yomi	jukujikun

Alternative spelling
竝瓢蟲 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

Compound of 並(なみ) (nami, “average, ordinary”) + 天道(てんとう) (tentō, literally, “celestial path”, but here referring to 天道虫 (tentō mushi, “ladybird, ladybug”); the 瓢虫 spelling is an alternative for tentō mushi).

The use 瓢虫 for the tentō portion is an example of jukujikun (熟字訓), borrowed from Chinese.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) なみてんとー [nàmí téꜜǹtòò] (Nakadaka – [3])
• IPA^(key): [na̠mʲi tẽ̞nto̞ː]

Noun

並(なみ)瓢虫(てんとう) or 並瓢虫(ナミテントウ) • (nami tentō) ^{←なみてんたう (namitentau)?}

1. harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis)

Usage notes

• As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as ナミテントウ.
• Sometimes called as simply 天道虫 (tentō mushi).