野火

野火

1. prairie fire; wildfire; bush fire
2. farm fire (for clearing fields)

• (prairie fire):

Compound of 野 (no, “field”) +‎ 火 (hi, “fire”).^[1] The hi changes to bi as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

An ancient variant seen in eastern Japan uses the dialectal reading nu for 野.^[1]

• (Tokyo) のび [nóꜜbì] (Atamadaka – [1])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [no̞bʲi]

野(の)火(び) • (nobi) 

(alternative reading hiragana ぬび, rōmaji nubi) (obsolete)

1. a controlled burn set in early spring to clear away brush from mountain fields
2. a wildfire

• 燹 (rare)

• (controlled agricultural burn): 野焼(のや)き (noyaki)

Compound of 火 (ho, “fire”) +‎ 退く (soku, “to push away, to make distant”).^[1]

The kun'yomi for 火 is usually hi, but it can appear as ho or fu, particularly in older compounds.^[1]

The soku changes to soke due to conjugation of the verb. Grammatically, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of soki was used for intransitive senses, and the stem form of soke was used for the transitive senses.^[1]

The kanji 野火 are an example of jukujikun.

• 火退, 逆焼, 燹

• IPA^(key): [ho̞so̞ke̞]

野火(ほそけ) • (hosoke)  (rare)

1. a backburn: a controlled fire deliberately set in the path of a wildfire to create a firebreak by removing combustible material

The more common word for this is 向火, 向(む)かい火(び) (mukaibi).^[1]

• 火退 (rare)
• 逆焼 (rare)
• 燹 (rare)

• 向火, 向(む)かい火(び) (mukaibi)

From Middle Chinese 野火 (yæ^X xwa^X, literally “open country + fire”).

• (Tokyo) やか [yáꜜkà] (Atamadaka – [1])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ja̠ka̠]

野(や)火(か) • (yaka) ^{←やくわ (yakwa)?}

1. a controlled burn set to clear away brush from fields
2. a fire set in a field
3. a wildfire
4. a will o' the wisp

• (controlled agricultural burn; wildfire): 燎原(りょうげん) (ryōgen)
• (will o' the wisp): 鬼火(おにび) (onibi), 狐火(きつねび) (kitsunebi), 狐日(きつねび) (kitsunebi), 陰火(いんか) (inka), 幽霊火(ゆうれいび) (yūreibi), 不知火(しらぬい) (shiranui)