Translingual

Han character

奥 (radical 37 大+9, 12 strokes, cangjie input 竹月大 (HBK) or X竹月大 (XHBK), composition ⿱⿵⿱丿冂米大)

1. mysterious, obscure, profound

References

• KangXi: not present, would follow page 253, character 15
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5981
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 545, character 7
• Unihan data for U+5965

Chinese

Japanese

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 奧)

Readings

• Goon: おう (ō), (historical) あう (au), おく (oku) (non-Jōyō reading), (historical) をく (woku)
• Kan’on: いく (iku) (non-Jōyō reading), (historical) ゐく (wiku), おう (ō), (historical) あう (au)
• Kan’yōon: おく (oku), (historical) をく (woku)
• Kun: おく (oku), おくまる (奥まる, okumaru)
• Nanori: くま (kuma), おお (ō), おん (on), つ (tsu), のく (noku)

Etymology

Despite the apparent overlap with the modern goon reading of oku that is derived from Middle Chinese, this term is actually rooted in Old Japanese, appearing in the Man'yōshū collection of poetry dating to roughly 759 CE. Cognate with 沖 ‎(oki, “the open sea, offshore”), originally in reference to “somewhere far removed, possibly out of sight”. While oki came to mean “far removed in the wide open → far off shore”, oku instead came to mean “far removed inside → inside, interior”.^[1]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) お​く [óꜜkù] (Atamadaka - [1])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [o̞kɯᵝ]

Noun

奥 ‎(hiragana おく, romaji oku)

1. inside; inner depths
2. back, rear
3. inside the house
4. one's heart, true feelings

Derived terms

Proper noun

奥 ‎(hiragana おく, romaji Oku)

1. A surname​.

References

1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
3. ↑ 1997, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Fifth Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13143-0

Korean

Hanja

奥 • ‎(o, uk) (hangeul 오, 욱, revised o, uk, McCune-Reischauer o, uk)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.