並瓢虫

Japanese

Kanji in this term
並 瓢 虫
なみ
Grade: 6		 Jinmeiyō Grade: 1
Irregular

Etymology

From 並 (なみ) (nami, “average, ordinary”) + 天道 (テントウ)虫 (ムシ) (tentō-mushi, “ladybird, ladybug”). (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

The use 瓢虫 for tentō-mushi is an example of jukujikun (熟字訓), borrowed from Chinese.

Pronunciation

  • (Irregular reading)
    • (Tokyo) なみて​んとー [nàmítéꜜǹtòò] (Nakadaka – [3])[1]
    • IPA(key): [na̠mʲitẽ̞nto̞ː]

Noun

並瓢虫 (shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 竝瓢蟲, hiragana なみてんとう, katakana ナミテントウ, rōmaji namitentō, historical hiragana なみてんたう, historical katakana ナミテンタウ)

  1. an Asian ladybeetle (Harmonia axyridis)

Usage notes

  • As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts, as ナミテンタウ.
  • Sometimes called as simply 天道虫 (tentō-mushi).[2]

References

  1. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. ↑ 1995, 大辞泉 (Daijisen) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
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