鯤

Han character edit

鯤 (Kangxi radical 195, 魚+8, 19 strokes, cangjie input 弓火日心心 (NFAPP), four-corner 2631₁, composition ⿰魚昆)

See also edit

• 鲲

References edit

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1473, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 46247
• Dae Jaweon: page 2005, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4696, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9BE4

Wikipedia has an article on:

• 鯤

Glyph origin edit

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *kuːn) : semantic 魚 (“fish”) + phonetic 昆 (OC *kuːn).

Etymology edit

“fish roe”

Related to 昆 (OC *kuːn, “descendants”) (Ye, 2014). See there for more.

“kun (sea monster)”

Perhaps related to 鵾 (“large bird”) (Liu, 1999).

Pronunciation edit

Definitions edit

鯤

1. (literary) fish roe; fry; spawn

   alt. forms: 卵 (luǎn)

   • 且夫山不槎蘗，澤不伐夭，魚禁鯤鮞 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     且夫山不槎蘗，泽不伐夭，鱼禁鲲鲕 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Guoyu, circa 4^th century BCE

     Qiěfú shān bù chá bò, zé bù fá yāo, yú jìn kūn ér [Pinyin]

     Moreover, the mountains do not fell the cork trees; the marshes do not cut down the young shoots; the fish protect their roe and fry

2. (Chinese mythology) kun, a large fish that transforms into a roc (鵬／鹏 (péng))

   • 鯤之大，不知其幾千里也。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     鲲之大，不知其几千里也。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Zhuangzi, circa 3^rd – 2^nd centuries BCE

     Kūn zhī dà, bùzhī qí jǐ qiān lǐ yě. [Pinyin]

     The size of the kun, I do not know how many thousand li it is.

Compounds edit

Descendants edit

References edit

• “鯤”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), B05981

Kanji edit

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. large mythical fish
2. roe

Readings edit

• Go-on: こん (kon)
• Kan-on: こん (kon)

Etymology edit

From Middle Chinese 鯤 (MC kwon).

Pronunciation edit

• (Tokyo) こ​ん [kóꜜǹ] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [kõ̞ɴ]

Noun edit

鯤(こん) • (kon) 

1. (Chinese mythology) a mythological giant fish that is several thousand 里 (ri, “leagues”) long and that lives in the northern seas

References edit

• Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

Hanja edit

鯤 • (gon) (hangeul 곤, revised gon, McCune–Reischauer kon, Yale kon)

1. (곤이 곤, gon-i-): roe; very young fish
2. (곤어 곤, gon-eo-): mythical fish of an unaccountable length