Japanese

Noun

丸太 ‎(hiragana まるた, romaji maruta) (alternative reading hiragana まろた, romaji marota) (less common)

1. a log: unsawn lumber (UK) or timber (US), a section of a tree cut to a length and with the bark removed, but otherwise round and unfinished
2. alternate name for the 似鯉 (にごい, ​nigoi) fish (Hemibarbus barbus); more commonly known as ニゴイ (​nigoi)
3. alternate name for the 鯎 or 石斑魚 (うぐい, ​ugui) fish, Japanese dace (Tribolodon hakonensis); more commonly known as ウグイ (​ugui)
4. (archaic, slang): during the Edo period, derogatory term for an unlicensed prostitute dressed as a Buddhist nun as a form of disguise from the authorities (from the way the shaven head looks a bit like a debarked log, and from the way that they both roll around)

Derived terms

Idioms

• 丸太に糠釘 (まるたにぬかくぎ, ​maruta ni nukakugi): “a tack into a log” → a metaphor for one's intentions or feelings not getting through to another person, much as a tack will not go through a log

Synonyms

• (log): 丸木 (まるき, ​maruki)
• (log): 丸太ん棒 (まるたんぼう, ​marutanbō)
• (Hemibarbus barbus): ニゴイ (​nigoi)
• (Japanese dace): ウグイ (​ugui)

External links

• Lumber on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• 木材 (Lumber) on the Japanese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^ja
• ニゴイ on the Japanese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^ja (Hemibarbus barbus)
• ウグイ on the Japanese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^ja (Tribolodon hakonensis)
• Edo period on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Ukiyo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

1. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3