Sora wa karatto

[Taurus]

I have another question. I think I understand what the following sentence means (from the story 'Gongitsune'):

空はからっと晴れていて、百舌鳥の声がきんきん、響いていました。

(Sora wa karatto hareteite, mozu tori no koe ga kinkin hibiite imashita.)

I think it means something like, 'when the sky cleared up, the sound of the mozu bird rang out', or 'the sky was clear and the sound of the mozu bird was ringing out.'

But what does 'karatto' mean? I can't seem to find it in any dictionary, although when I google it, it looks like you can say it with kanji, thus: 空土

[trykyn]

thats what my dictionary (理解ちゃん,jisho.org,..) tells me:

からっと
1: (on-mim) changing suddenly and completely;
2: crisp and dry (e.g. skies, weather, tempura, laundry, etc.)

[mutley]

yep I think it comes from the onomatopoeia からから　or からっと
this usually tends to indicate dryness
e.g. のどはからから
have a dry throat

so i guess in this context is means ' a clear, crisp/dry day'

[Taurus]

Cool - thanks for those replies. I wonder why it didn't show up in the dictionaries I checked (alc, sanseido and JWP).

[QuackingShoe]

That's why you use dic.yahoo.co.jp instead,
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF- ... 9703673900

Or rikaichan.