凄まじい

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Japanese

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Kanji in this term
すさ
Grade: S
kun'yomi

Etymology

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From Old Japanese. First cited in the Nihon Shoki of 720.[1]

Derived from verb 荒む (susamu, to grow wild, to fall into ruin, to go to waste; to lose force and cease (such as wind or rain); to become absorbed in doing something; to grow old and weak),[1][2] possibly from the causative form 荒ます (susamasu). May be cognate with the susa element in the name of the Shinto god, Susanoo-no-Mikoto.

The term initially evoked senses of desolate, depressing in reference to people or emotions, and desolate, wild, chilly in reference to natural phenomena. Usage then shifted to a focus on frightful, terrible, extreme during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods (1100s–1500s).[1][2]

The adjective appears initially without voicing on the last element, as susamashi in the terminal form.[1][2] The voicing appears from roughly the Kamakura period (late 1100s–early 1300s), with both unvoiced susamashi and voiced susamaji appearing in free variation until the late 1500s.[2]

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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(すさ)まじい (susamajii-i (adverbial (すさ)まじく (susamajiku))

  1. dreadful, threatening
  2. fierce, extreme, tremendous

Inflection

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References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN