百足

百足

1. (literary or Cantonese, Pinghua, dialectal Hakka) centipede (Classifier: 條／条 c)
2. (literary) millipede; diplopod

• (millipede):

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *mukantai, of unknown derivation; some theories include:

1. a compound of 向かい (mukai, “facing”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 向かう (mukau, “to face”)) +‎ 手 (te, “hand”), as the centipede's feet come in facing pairs
2. a compound of 六 (mu, “six”) +‎ 十 (ka, “ten”, unusual reading; compare the ga in 五十嵐 (igarashi)) +‎ 手 (te, “hand”), literally "sixty hands"; centipedes have more or less than one hundred legs
3. starting as a compound of 百 (momo, “hundred”) +‎ が (ga, ancient possessive particle) +‎ 手 (te, “hand”), shifting phonetically: /momo ɡa te/ → /mukade/

While the latter two theories seem plausible semantically, the devoicing of ga to ka is quite unusual.

The kanji are jukujikun (熟字訓), from Chinese 百足 (bǎizú).

• (Tokyo) むかで [mùkádé] (Heiban – [0])^[1][2][3]
• IPA^(key): [mɯ̟ka̠de̞]

百足(むかで) or 百足(ムカデ) • (mukade)  (standard)
(alternative reading hiragana むかぜ, rōmaji mukaze) (Kagoshima dialect)

1. a centipede

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as ムカデ (mukade).

• 石百足(いしむかで) (ishi-mukade)
• 鳶頭百足(トビズムカデ) (tobizu-mukade)

From Middle Chinese 百足 (MC paek tsjowk).

• (Tokyo) ひゃくそく [hyàkúsókú] (Heiban – [0])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [ça̠kɯ̟so̞kɯ̟]

百(ひゃく)足(そく) • (hyakusoku) 

1. (rare) a centipede

The mukade reading is much more common.

• 馬陸(やすで) (yasude, “a millipede”)

• Etymology at Gogen-Allguide (in Japanese)
• Etymology at Nihon Jiten (in Japanese)

百足(んかじ) (nkaji) 

1. a centipede

百足(むかじ) (mukaji) 

1. a centipede

百足(ぬかで) (nukade) 

1. a centipede