玉砕

Japanese

Kanji in this term
ぎょく
Grade: 1
さい
Grade: S
on'yomi
Alternative spellings
玉碎 (kyūjitai)
玉摧

Etymology

From the Chinese idiom 寧可玉碎,不能瓦全. Literally means "broken piece of jade".

Pronunciation

  • (Tokyo) ぎょさい [gyòkúsáí] (Heiban – [0])[1][2]
  • IPA(key): [ɡʲo̞kɯ̟̊sa̠i]

Noun

(ぎょく)(さい) • (gyokusai

  1. dying in an honorable defeat
    Antonym: 瓦全
  2. (colloquial) trying but being utterly beaten; being completely rejected when professing one's love

Usage notes

Verb

(ぎょく)(さい)する • (gyokusai surusuru (stem (ぎょく)(さい) (gyokusai shi), past (ぎょく)(さい)した (gyokusai shita))

  1. to die in an honorable defeat

Conjugation

References

  1. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  2. ^ 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