憎い

Japanese

Kanji in this term
憎
にく
Grade: S
kun’yomi
Alternative spellings
憎い (kyūjitai)
悪い

Etymology

From Old Japanese. Cognate with 憎む (nikumu, “to hate”), 難い (-nikui, “difficult [to do]”, verb suffix).

Pronunciation

  • Tokyo pitch accent of inflected forms of "憎い"
Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary
Stem forms
Continuative (連用形) 憎く に​くく
にく​く
[níꜜkùkù]
[nìkúꜜkù]
Terminal (終止形) 憎い にく​い [nìkúꜜì]
Attributive (連体形) 憎い にく​い [nìkúꜜì]
Key constructions
Informal negative 憎くない に​くくない
にく​くない
[níꜜkùkùnàì]
[nìkúꜜkùnàì]
Informal past 憎かった に​くかった
にく​かった
[níꜜkùkàttà]
[nìkúꜜkàttà]
Informal negative past 憎くなかった に​くくなかった
にく​くなかった
[níꜜkùkùnàkàttà]
[nìkúꜜkùnàkàttà]
Formal 憎いです にく​いです [nìkúꜜìdèsù]
Conjunctive 憎くて に​くくて
にく​くて
[níꜜkùkùtè]
[nìkúꜜkùtè]
Conditional 憎ければ に​くければ
にく​ければ
[níꜜkùkèrèbà]
[nìkúꜜkèrèbà]

Adjective

憎(にく)い • (nikui) -i (adverbial 憎(にく)く (nikuku))

  1. hateful, detestable, abominable
    • Ise Monogatari (The Tales of Ise), late 800s to early 900s:
      されどにくゝはたあらざりけり。
      Saredo nikuku hata arazarikeri.
      But no one thought him dislikeable.
      → Note that the negative connotations have strengthened over time. The older meaning was milder, closer to dislikeable than the modern hateful.

Inflection

Antonyms

Derived terms

References

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