白玉 (shiratama: white gem, pearl, or rice-flour dumpling)
白玉楼 (hakugyokurō: dead literary figure)
We can infer that because shiratama is a kun-kun combination, it’s a word from old Japanese. By contrast, hakugyokurō uses only on-yomi. Even if we didn’t know that hakugyokurō: was first used in China to refer to a Chinese poet, we could have guessed that it arrived from China as a whole compound. (That’s not always the case with on-on compounds, but it’s often true.)
Confused by the lingo? Click here for a glossary on my website.
