Translingual

Han character

A black crow

烏 (radical 86 火+6, 10 strokes, cangjie input 竹口卜火 (HRYF), four-corner 2732₇)

Synonyms

• 黑 (黒)

References

• KangXi: page 670, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 18998
• Dae Jaweon: page 1079, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 3, page 2202, character 3
• Unihan data for U+70CF

Chinese

Glyph origin

Pictogram (象形) – a bird. Compare 鳥 (“bird”), of similar development.

Sense “black, dark” generalized from crow – “black as a crow”. Compare 黑 (OC *hmlɯːɡ, “black as ink”).

Etymology

“Crow”: Onomatopoeic (*qaː). Cognate with 鴉 (OC *qraː, “crow; raven”), which retains the earlier vowel in Middle Chinese (*ʔˠa).

Interrogative pronoun: Related to the following interrogative pronouns with similar phonological shapes in Old Chinese (Wang, 1982), with differing suffixes:

• 焉 (OC *qran, *ɢan, *qan)
• 惡 (OC *qaː, *qaːɡs, *qaːɡ)
• 安 (OC *qaːn)

Pronunciation

Definitions

烏

1. crow; raven; rook
2. ^†sun
3. (literary or Hakka, Min) black; dark

   天烏烏，欲落雨。 [Min Nan, trad.]

   天乌乌，欲落雨。 [Min Nan, simp.]

   From: 天烏烏 (A Hokkien nursery rhyme)

   Thiⁿ o͘-o͘, beh lo̍h-hō͘. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

   The sky is dark; it seems like it will rain.

4. ^† to dye black
5. ^†An interrogative pronoun with a variety of meanings, including “how”, “why”, “where”, etc.
6. ^†no; not
7. A surname​.

See also

• 鴉／鸦 (yā)

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names)

Readings

• Goon: う (u)
• Kan’on: お (o), (historical) を (wo)
• Kan’yōon: (rare, only in some compounds) え (e)
• Kun: いずくんぞ (izukunzo), からす (karasu), なんぞ (nanzo)

Compounds

Etymology

烏 (karasu): a crow, a raven.

Compound of から ‎(kara, “caw”, onomatopoeia) +‎ す ‎(su, “bird?”, ancient suffix appearing in certain bird names).^[1] Compare the す ‎(su) in 鶯 ‎(uguisu), 杜鵑 ‎(hototogisu).

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) か​らす [káꜜràsù] (Atamadaka - [1])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [ka̠ɾ̠a̠sɯᵝ]

Alternative forms

• 鴉

Noun

烏 ‎(hiragana からす, katakana カラス, romaji karasu)

1. a crow; a raven

Usage notes

This is the most common reading for this character when used in isolation in modern Japanese.

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana in biological contexts, as カラス.

Synonyms

• 慈鳥 (じちょう) ‎(jichō)

Derived terms

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. ↑ 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

Kikai

Kanji

烏 ‎(hiragana がらさー, romaji garasā, hiragana がるさー, romaji garusā)

Etymology

Cognate with mainland Japanese 烏 ‎(karasu).

Alternative forms

• 鴉

Noun

烏 ‎(hiragana がらさー, romaji garasā, hiragana がるさー, romaji garusā)

1. crow, raven

Korean

Hanja

烏 • ‎(o) (hangeul 오, revised o, McCune-Reischauer o, Yale o)

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

Northern Amami-Oshima

Kanji

烏 ‎(hiragana からすぃ, romaji karasi)

Etymology

Cognate with mainland Japanese 烏 ‎(karasu).

Alternative forms

• 鴉

Noun

烏 ‎(hiragana からすぃ, romaji karasi)

1. crow, raven

Oki-No-Erabu

Kanji

烏 ‎(hiragana がらし, romaji garashi)

Etymology

Cognate with mainland Japanese 烏 ‎(karasu).

Alternative forms

• 鴉

Noun

烏 ‎(hiragana がらし, romaji garashi)

1. crow, raven

Vietnamese

Han character

烏 (ô, o, dặng)

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

Yonaguni

Kanji

烏 ‎(hiragana がらち, romaji garachi)

Etymology

Cognate with mainland Japanese 烏 ‎(karasu).

Alternative forms

• 鴉

Noun

烏 ‎(hiragana がらち, romaji garachi)

1. crow, raven