Origin of the word 'sakana' (魚)

[singidunum]

I've heard from a friend of mine that, when she was visiting Portugal, the guide told her that the Japanese word 'sakana' had been based on a Portuguese swear word brought to Japan by Portuguese seafarers. Is it true or is it some sort of myth? It seems very strange to me because the fish are something the Japanese are familiar with from the early history.

[QuackingShoe]

Because the Portuguese did have early contact with Japan and did introduce many words into Japanese, they often think that quite a lot of more pure-Japanese words are actually based on Portuguese.

They are very usually wrong.



Another very frequently cited example is ありがとう being a loanword. It does sound similar, but it's absurd if you know anything about the grammar of the word. It's based off 有る + 難い = 有り難い. Obviously not a loan.

[RokkuRi]

That's not true, but "tempura" is actually Portugeuse ("tempora"). I was surprised to learn that, actually, since the two words seem unrelated.

[goulnik]

apparently, sakana refers to food eaten as an accompaniment to alcohol (肴). Because fish, especially dried fish, was a popular choice for these dishes, over the years the term sakana also became the pronunciation for the kanji for fish (魚). The kanji 肴 is pronounced yáo in Chinese, traditional form 餚.

[singidunum]

I see. That sounds true. Thanks for your responses.

[Ben Bullock]

I've heard from a friend of mine that, when she was visiting Portugal, the guide told her that the Japanese word 'sakana' had been based on a Portuguese swear word brought to Japan by Portuguese seafarers. Is it true or is it some sort of myth? It seems very strange to me because the fish are something the Japanese are familiar with from the early history.

Why would the Japanese use a Portuguese swear word for their name for fish? As goulnik pointed out, the word sakana supposedly comes from sake. I don't really know if this is true or just a folk etymology. Another word for "fish" in Japanese is "uo". There is a page on the origin of sakana here: http://gogen-allguide.com/sa/sakana.html. However, it doesn't give any references so it's a bit hard to guarantee that it's right.