後ろ

Japanese

Etymology
Kanji in this term
後
うし
Grade: 2
kun’yomi
Alternative spelling
後

From Old Japanese.[1] Appears in the Kojiki of 712 CE. Also cited to a portion of the Shoku Nihongi dated to 781, with the phonetic spelling 宇志呂 (usiro2).[2] In turn, from Proto-Japonic *osirə.

Ultimate derivation unknown. Might be from stem us- ("lost; gone, out of sight", as in 失う (ushinau, “to lose”), older verb 失す (usu, “to lose; to go away”)) + locative suffix -ro2 indicating an interior (as in 所 (tokoro, “place”), 空ろ・虚ろ (utsuro, “emptiness, a hollow”), 洞・空・虚 (uro, “a hollow space in something”), 室 (muro, “room; cave”), possibly 心 (kokoro, “heart”)). The earliest sense of "somewhere out of sight"[2] also suggests a connection with stem us-.

Pronunciation

Noun

後(うし)ろ • (ushiro) 

  1. the back, the behind, the rear (both spatially and temporally)
    • 720, Nihon Shoki, (poem 120):
      , text available at ONCOJ here
      瀰儺度能于之藩能矩娜利于那倶娜梨(みなとのうしおのくだりうなくだり)于之盧(うしろ)母倶例尼飫岐底舸由舸武(もくれにおきてかゆかむ) [Man'yōgana]
      港(みなと)の潮(うしお)の下(くだ)り海下(うなくだ)り後(うし)ろも暮(く)れに置(お)きてか行(ゆ)かむ [Modern spelling]
      minato no ushio no kudari unakudari ushiro mo kure ni okiteka yukamu
      With the harbour's ebbing tide, as the sea goes down, with the darkness behind me. Leaving him, I must go.
  2. one's backside

Derived terms
Derived terms

References
  1. Frellesvig, Bjarke; Stephen Wright Horn; et al. (eds.) (2023), “Old Japanese usiro”, in Oxford-NINJAL Corpus of Old Japanese‎
  2. “後ろ”, in 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, “Nihon Kokugo Daijiten”)‎ (in Japanese), concise edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 2000
  3. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  4. 1997, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Fifth Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  5. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
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