痛い

See also: いたい

Japanese

Kanji in this term
痛
いた
Grade: 6
kun’yomi
Alternative spellings
甚い
イタい (particularly the "cringy" sense)

Etymology

From Old Japanese 痛し (itasi),[1][2][3][4] from Proto-Japonic *eta (“painful”). Might originally be an interjection; compare English ouch.

Pronunciation

  • Tokyo pitch accent of inflected forms of "痛い"
Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary
Stem forms
Continuative (連用形) 痛く い​たく
いた​く
[íꜜtàkù]
[ìtáꜜkù]
Terminal (終止形) 痛い いた​い [ìtáꜜì]
Attributive (連体形) 痛い いた​い [ìtáꜜì]
Key constructions
Informal negative 痛くない い​たくない
いた​くない
[íꜜtàkùnàì]
[ìtáꜜkùnàì]
Informal past 痛かった い​たかった
いた​かった
[íꜜtàkàttà]
[ìtáꜜkàttà]
Informal negative past 痛くなかった い​たくなかった
いた​くなかった
[íꜜtàkùnàkàttà]
[ìtáꜜkùnàkàttà]
Formal 痛いです いた​いです [ìtáꜜìdèsù]
Conjunctive 痛くて い​たくて
いた​くて
[íꜜtàkùtè]
[ìtáꜜkùtè]
Conditional 痛ければ い​たければ
いた​ければ
[íꜜtàkèrèbà]
[ìtáꜜkèrèbà]

Adjective

痛(いた)い • (itai) -i (adverbial 痛(いた)く (itaku))

  1. painful
    頭(あたま)が痛(いた)い。
    Atama ga itai.
    I have a headache.
    お腹(なか)が痛(いた)い。
    Onaka ga itai.
    My stomach hurts.
    痛(いた)っ!
    Ita'!
    Ow!
  2. イタい: (slang) cringy; embarrassing
  3. (obsolete) wonderful, pleasant

Usage notes

The desiderative suffix たい (tai) is ultimately derived from this word. The sense of “wonderful” may have influenced this development.

The shift in meaning towards only meaning “painful” is similar to the changes of the word すばらしい (subarashii, “terrible→wonderful”) or of English terrific, sick, and wicked, and contrary to awful.

Inflection

Synonyms

Derived terms

References

  1. Frellesvig, Bjarke, Stephen Wright Horn, et al. (eds.) (2023) “Old Japanese ita-”, in Oxford-NINJAL Corpus of Old Japanese‎
  2. Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  3. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  4. Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  5. Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1974), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Second edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō
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