め

See also: ぬ

め U+3081, め
HIRAGANA LETTER ME
← む
[U+3080] 		Hiragana も →
[U+3082]

Japanese

Stroke order

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [me̞]

Etymology 1

Derived in the Heian period from writing the man'yōgana kanji 女 in the cursive sōsho style.

Syllable

め • (me) 

  1. The hiragana syllable め (me). Its equivalent in katakana is メ (me). It is the thirty-fourth syllable in the gojūon order; its position is ま行え段 (ma-gyō e-dan, “row ma, section e”).
See also

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of め – see the following entry.
【目】1
[noun] [from 712] 目, 眼: eye
[noun] [from 720] 目: visually prominent feature of something:
[noun] [from 720] 目: small hole, like those inherent to a net-like material (between the warp and the weft)
[noun] [from 759] 目: short for 賽の目 (sai no me, “dice pip”)
[noun] [from late 900s] 目: (by extension) experience
[suffix] [from early 1400s] 目: -st, -nd, -rd, or -th, for ordinal numbers (e.g. 8th or eighth, 9th or ninth)
[suffix] [from late 1800s] 目: visually prominent feature of something
[suffix] (attached to verb or i-adjective roots to produce na-adjectives, not productive with verbs) to a more exaggerated degree
Alternative spelling
眼
(This term, め (me), is the hiragana spelling of the above term.)
For a list of all kanji read as め, see Category:Japanese kanji read as め.)

Etymology 3

Alternative spelling
芽

From Old Japanese. First attested in the Kojiki of 712 CE.[1]

Possibly cognate with 目・眼 (me),[1] perhaps from the “visually prominent feature” sense of that term.

Pronunciation

Noun

め • (me) ←め (me)?

  1. [from 712] 芽: bud, sprout, shoot
  2. [from 1922] 芽: the germ of an idea, an inkling
  3. [date unknown] 芽: (biology) a bird embryo: more specifically, as found on the yolk of an egg, the blastodisk, the germinal disk, the embryonic disk
    Synonym: 胚盤 (haiban)

Etymology 4

Alternative spelling
奴 (uncommon)

First cited to The Tale of the Heike from the early 1300s.[1]

Might be a shift in usage of 目 (me, “visually prominent feature”). The 奴 spelling does not appear to be common, and this is not included in all dictionaries.[1][4]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [me̞]
(pitch accent depends on the entire suffixed word)

Suffix

め • (-me) 

  1. [from early 1300s] 奴: derogatory suffix attached to people's names or words that refer to people, animals, etc.
    ばか奴(め)！
    Baka-me!
    Idiot!
    • 1910 [1901], Leonid Andreyev, translated by Mori Ōgai, Inu [Dog]‎[1], translation of Snapper:
      「来(こ)いといったら来(こ)い。シュッチュカ奴(め)。馬(ば)鹿(か)な奴(やつ)だ。己(おの)れはどうもしやしない。」
      “Koi to ittara koi. Shutchuka-me. Baka na yatsu da. Onore wa dōmo shi ya shinai.”
      "If I say come, come. Silly Žučka. You fool. I won't do anything to you."

Etymology 5

For pronunciation and definitions of め – see the following entry.
【女】1
[noun] a woman
[noun] a wife
[noun] a female
(This term, め (me), is the hiragana spelling of the above term.)
For a list of all kanji read as め, see Category:Japanese kanji read as め.)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named KDJ
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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