According to the "Gogen Yurai Jiten" (Etymology Derivation Dictionary") (http://gogen-allguide.com/a/arigatou.html), the etymology of "arigato" ("arigatou" when entered into a Japanese input method editor, such as Kotoeri) is as follows (at the risk of moji-bake (garbled text), I have included the Japanese text in Japanese characters before each translated portion): - translated text follows immediately after this line - èªÆ¤Ìê¹ÍA`euLèïµi 誽µjvÌAp`uLèïi 誽jvªE¹Ö»µA èªÆ¤ÆÈÁ½B The etymology of "arigatou" is that the te-form [loosely translated as "conjunctive form"] "arigataku" of the adjective "arigatashi" changed in form to end in the "u" sound, and became "arigatou." uLèïµi 誽µjvÍAuLéi éj±Ævªuï¢i©½¢jvÆ¢¤Ó¡ÅA{ÍuŽÉÈ¢vâu¿µÄMd¾vÆ¢¤Ó¡ð\µ½B "Arigatashi" has the meaning of "being" being "rare"/"difficult," and originally expressed the meaning of "rare" or "uncommon and precious." wqxÌu 誽«àÌvÅÍAu±Ì¢É é̪ﵢvÆ¢¤Ó¡AÂÜèAuß²µÉ¢vÆ¢Á½Ó¡Åàp¢çêÄ¢éB In [the scene] "Arigataki Mono" ["That Which is Uncommon/Precious] ] of "Makura no Soushi" [The Pillow Book] [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pillow_Book], it is also used to mean "it is difficult to be in this world"; i.e., "difficult to spend [time in]." ¢ÉÈèA§ÌßÈÇMdžï¢àÌð©ªÍ¾Ä¢éÆ¢¤Æ±ë©çA@³IÈ´ÓÌC¿ð¢¤æ¤ÉÈèAߢÈ~A´ÓÌӡƵÄêÊÉàLªÁ½B When medieval times arrived, from [the idea of] charity of the Buddha, etc., in obtaining that which is precious and difficult to obtain, it came to express a feeling of gratitude, and in recent times and later, it spread to general use as the meaning of gratitude. |gKêÌuIuK[hiobrigadojv©çAu èªÆ¤vƾ¤æ¤ÉÈÁ½Æ¢¤àª éªA|gKlªKêéÈO©çgíêÄ¢½¾tª|gKêÉR·é͸ÍÈAuIuK[hvÆu èªÆ¤v̹ªß¢Æ¢¤¾¯ÌbÅAöxÌá¢àÅ éB There is a myth that from "obrigado" of Portuguese, people came to say "arigatou," but it cannot be the case that a word used before Portuguese people [first] visited Japan was derived from the Portuguese language; it just so happens to be the case that the sounds of "obrigado" and "arigatou" are similar, and this is a vulgar myth. - translated text ends immediately before this line - Yoroshiku onegai itashimasu. Arigatou gozaimasu. Benjamin L. Russell --- jerzy.karczmarczuk@info.unicaen.fr wrote:
Chung-chieh Shan corrects me:
PS. If you think that "arigato" is a genuine Japanese word, well, check how the appropriately translated word is spelled in Portuguese...
I'm not sure what you mean by "genuine", but I suspect that whether "arigato" is genuine does not depend on Portuguese. http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-1871.html http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-1906.html
Yes, it seems that I have been one more victim of this red herring. In the cited issues of the linguistlist there is a nice discussion of that topic. It should be more widely known entre a gente falando portugues. Vou calar a boca...
Gomen nasai.
Jerzy Karczmarczuk
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