Online Etymological resources?

[seanolan]

Anyone know of any sites that have (in English, hopefully) etymological history of words/kanji? I keep seeing ODD combinations of kanji make totally unrelated words, and of course that always distracts me from actually studying into wondering why and how that came to be.

Sean

[Bueller_007]

Anyone know of any sites that have (in English, hopefully) etymological history of words/kanji? I keep seeing ODD combinations of kanji make totally unrelated words, and of course that always distracts me from actually studying into wondering why and how that came to be.

Sean

http://gogen-allguide.com/
or just the straight dictionary:
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/

Only 1300 words in all-guide up to now though. What's an example of an odd combo?

[seanolan]

One that always has stuck in my mind is the one for masher, or lecher, 助平, which uses the kanji for "help, rescue" as in 助けてください and "flat, even, peace" which is usually used in geometrical terms or to describe something tranquil or peaceful. Another one is 万年筆, "ten-thousand year brush(writing instrument)" to mean "fountain pen". How did this kind of pen get connected to ten-thousand years?

And while I assume that website is quite useful, it is FAR beyond my Japanese level. But thank you.

Sean

[Bueller_007]

http://gogen-allguide.com/su/sukebe.html

You should be able to read that with a little bit of dictionary help...
http://tinyurl.com/yos8qp

Unfortunately, 万年筆 is not in there. Do calligraphy brushes ever wear out? Maybe 万年筆 was originally chosen as like a brand name or something because it was a long-lived replacement for short-lived brushes. Of course, if brushes don't wear out, this theory is in the toilet.

[annie]

One that always has stuck in my mind is the one for masher, or lecher, 助平, which uses the kanji for "help, rescue" as in 助けてください and "flat, even, peace" which is usually used in geometrical terms or to describe something tranquil or peaceful. Another one is 万年筆, "ten-thousand year brush(writing instrument)" to mean "fountain pen". How did this kind of pen get connected to ten-thousand years?

And while I assume that website is quite useful, it is FAR beyond my Japanese level. But thank you.

Sean

Don't know about sukebe... you need to be rescued from sukebe people?

I've always thought of a fountain pen as a something that would last for far longer than a brush. And thus ten-thousand year brush makes sense to me.

[Bueller_007]

Don't know about sukebe... you need to be rescued from sukebe people?

I've always thought of a fountain pen as a something that would last for far longer than a brush. And thus ten-thousand year brush makes sense to me.

Actually, I'd never seen the word written like that before now.

Usually it's just スケベ, I think...

The link says something along the lines of this. 好き became bastardized as すけ, was assigned the kanji 助 as an ateji, then 兵衛 was added to make it a "personified" word: 助兵衛 (すけべえ). Edict also has these other words that were personified with 兵衛, so it appears to be a somewhat common suffix:
飲ん兵衛 [のんべえ] (n) heavy drinker, tippler
田舎っ兵衛 [いなかっぺえ] (n) country bumpkin, hick

べえ became べい, and 平 seems to have been assigned as ateji. Giving: 助平

[nandemoii]

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/

That's in English.