天麩羅

Orthographic borrowing from Japanese 天麩羅(てんぷら) (tenpura).

天麩羅

1. alternative form of 天婦羅 / 天妇罗 (tiānfùluó)

• 天婦羅／天妇罗 (tiānfùluó)
• 甜不辣 (tiánbùlà)
• 天富羅／天富罗 (tiānfùluó)

• (shortening, only in compounds) 天(てん) (ten)

Borrowed from Portuguese, ultimately from Latin. Different dictionaries link two different original terms:

• Portuguese tempero (“seasoning”) or tempera (third-person present singular or imperative tense of temperar (“to season, to temper”)), from Latin temperare (“to mix, to temper”).^[1][2][3]
• Portuguese têmpora (“Ember days”), from Latin tempora, plural of tempus (“time; period”). When Portuguese explorers (mostly Jesuit missionaries) arrived in Japan, they abstained from eating beef, pork, and poultry during the Ember days series of holidays. Instead, they ate fried vegetables and fish. This was the first contact of the Japanese with fried food, and since then they began associating Portuguese têmpora (IPA: /ˈtẽ.pu.ɾɐ/) with such food.^[3][4]

The kanji are ateji (当て字).

• (Tokyo) てんぷら [tèńpúrá] (Heiban – [0])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [tẽ̞mpɯ̟ɾa̠]

• Audio:

  (file)

天(てん)麩(ぷ)羅(ら) or 天麩羅(テンプラ) • (tenpura) 

1. tempura: a Japanese dish made from seafood, chicken, or vegetables dipped in batter and deep fried