To Know One’s Onions
Friday, June 1st, 2007
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When a Japanese friend emailed me a recipe, one ingredient jumped out at me: 玉ねぎ (tamanegi: onion). I hadn’t realized that “onion” contains 玉 (GYOKU, tama), the character for “jewel.” I momentarily enjoyed thinking of onions as the gems of the vegetable world!
As I soon found, though, 玉- is also a prefix meaning “spherical” or “round.” That’s the sense 玉- conveys in 玉ねぎ.
On 玉- as a Prefix
Meaning “Spherical” …
Oh, well. Seeing the 玉 of 玉ねぎ as “round” is a little more mundane than imagining a white onion as the pearl of the produce store, a yellow onion as a topaz, or a red onion as a ruby!
The “onion” compound isn’t the only food word containing 玉. These do, too:
玉菜 (tamana: cabbage) round + vegetable
You can’t get more straightforward than that breakdown!
玉藻 (tamamo: seaweed) exquisite + seaweed
As a prefix, 玉- can mean “beautiful” or “exquisite.” One dictionary says that 玉藻 and 藻 (SŌ, mo) have identical meanings but that 玉藻 is the more elegant way to say “seaweed.” So I’m guessing that 玉 means “exquisite” here, though I have no idea. (I’m also struggling to imagine seaweed as beautiful, exquisite, or elegant!)
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity | 11 Comments »
