かわいそう

Japanese

Alternative spellings
可哀想 (poetic)
可哀相 (poetic)

Etymology

かわいい (“(obsolete) pitiable”) +‎ そう (“appears to be; looks like”)

The kanji spellings are ateji (当て字) and typically used in poetry.

Pronunciation

  • (Tokyo) かわいそ​ー [kàwáísóꜜò] (Nakadaka – [4])[1]
  • IPA(key): [ka̠ɰᵝa̠iso̞ː]

Adjective

かわいそう • (kawaisō) ←かはいさう (kafaisau)?-na (adnominal かわいそうな (kawaisō na na), adverbial かわいそうに (kawaisō ni ni))

  1. pitiable; pitiful; poor; pathetic
    Synonyms: 気の毒, 可憐

Inflection

References

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