果物

Japanese

Etymology 1

果物 (kudamono, kabutsu): various kinds of fruit.

Kanji in this term
果	物
Grade: 4	もの Grade: 3
irregular	kun'yomi

Literally “tree's thing”. Originally a compound of 木 (ku, “tree”, shift from ancient ko pronunciation) +‎ だ (da, possessive marker between two nouns, only found in a few compounds) +‎ 物 (mono, “thing”).

The medial da is also seen in 獣 (kedamono, “beast”, literally “hairy thing”). The kanji is jukujikun (熟字訓).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) くだもの [kùdáꜜmònò] (Nakadaka – [2])
• IPA^(key): [kɯ̟da̠mo̞no̞]

Noun

果物(くだもの) • (kudamono) 

1. edible fruit that grows on trees or shrubs, such as oranges and apples, or sweet edible fruit that grows along the ground, such as strawberries and melons

Synonyms

• フルーツ (furūtsu)

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 果(くだ)物(もの)急(いそ)ぎ (kudamono isogi): the act of often taking something from a selection of fruit or other sweets put out at a social gathering; a person who is quick to take items from such a selection
• 果(くだ)物(もの)屋(や) (kudamonoya): a fruit store
• 果(くだ)物(もの)籠(かご) (kudamono kago): a fruit basket

See also

• 果(か)実(じつ) (kajitsu): fruit (edible or otherwise)
• 実(み) (mi): a seed, a berry, a fruit, a nut
• 青(せい)果(か)物(ぶつ) (seikabutsu): garden stuff, greenstuff
• 八百屋(やおや) (yaoya): a greengrocer

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
果	物
か Grade: 4	ぶつ Grade: 3
kan'on

/kwabut͡su/ → /kabut͡su/

Possibly from Middle Chinese compound 果物 (*kuɑ *miuət, literally “fruit thing”). Compare modern Mandarin 果物 reading guǒwù (rare), Cantonese gwo² mat⁶ (rare).

Rarely used in modern Japanese.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ka̠bɯ̟t͡sɨ]

Noun

果(か)物(ぶつ) • (kabutsu) ^{←くわぶつ (kwabutu)?}

1. (rare) fruit

Usage notes

The kudamono reading is much more common in modern Japanese.