雑魚

Japanese

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

雑魚

Kanji in this term
雑	魚
ざこ
Grade: 5	Grade: 2
jukujikun

Alternative spellings
雜魚 (kyūjitai) 雑喉

Alternative forms

ざぁこ (zāko, interjection associated with the fictional メスガキ (mesugaki) trope)

Etymology

This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.
Particularly: “Seems to be a compound, but of what? Was there a shift from an older reading? The expected on'yomi reading would be zatsu-go > zaggo or (with final 喉) zatsu-kō > zakko.”

Pronunciation

(Tokyo) ざこ [záꜜkò] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1]
IPA^(key): [d͡za̠ko̞]

(Tokyo) じゃこ [jáꜜkò] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1]
IPA^(key): [d͡ʑa̠ko̞]

IPA^(key): [iza̠ko̞]

Noun

雑魚(ざこ) or 雑魚(じゃこ) or 雑魚(いざこ) or 雑魚(ざっこう) or 雑魚(ざっこ) or 雑魚(ざこう) • (zako or jako or izako or zakkō or zakko or zakō)

small fry; small, worthless fishes; coarse fishes with low market value
(figuratively) a weak or useless person

Usage notes

Readings 4, 5, and 6 are all obsolete.

Derived terms

Descendants

→ Chinese: 雜魚 / 杂鱼

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

[DJR-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

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