Chinese

Noun

眼鏡

1. glasses; eyeglasses; spectacles   (Classifier: 副 m)

   戴眼鏡 / 戴眼镜  ―  dài yǎnjìng  ―  to wear glasses

   摘眼鏡 / 摘眼镜  ―  zhāi yǎnjìng  ―  to take off one's glasses

   除眼鏡 / 除眼镜 [Cantonese]  ―  ceoi⁴ngaan⁵ geng³ [Jyutping]  ―  to take off one's glasses

Synonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

Japanese

眼鏡 (megane, gankyō): a pair of eyeglasses.

Etymology 1

Probably originally a compound of 目 ‎(me, “eye”) +‎ 金 ‎(kane, “metal”, in reference to the metal used in eyeglass frames). The kane changes to gane as an instance of rendaku (連濁). The spelling is jukujikun (熟字訓), based on an apparent borrowing from Chinese (see the gankyō reading below).

Pronunciation

• (Irregular reading)
• (Tokyo) め​がね [méꜜgànè] (Atamadaka - [1])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [me̞ɡ̃ã̠ne̞]

Noun

眼鏡 ‎(hiragana めがね, romaji megane)

1. glasses, eyeglasses

Derived terms

Etymology 2

/gankjau/ → /gankjɔː/ → /gankjoː/

Probably a borrowing from written Chinese 眼鏡. Eyeglasses are first mentioned in Chinese in the 1400s as 叆叇 ‎(aidai?), a transcription of an Arabic term. By the late Ming dynasty, eyeglasses appear in writing as 叆叇即眼鏡 (“aidai, i.e. eye-lenses”), using the compound term 眼鏡 ‎(literally “eye + lens”).

Compare modern Min Nan reading gán-kiàⁿ.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi
• (Tokyo) がんきょう [gàńkyóó] (Heiban - [0])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [ɡã̠ŋkjo̞ː]

Noun

眼鏡 ‎(hiragana がんきょう, romaji gankyō, historical hiragana がんきやう)

1. (military, possibly archaic) glasses, eyeglasses

Usage notes

This reading was mostly used by the military.^[3] May be somewhat archaic now.

See also

References

1. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
2. ↑ 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
3. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan

Korean

Noun

眼鏡 • ‎(an-gyeong) ‎(hangeul 안경)

1. Hanja form^? of 안경, “glasses, spectacles”.

Okinawan

Etymology 1

Cognate with mainland Japanese 眼鏡 ‎(gankyō, “eyeglasses”), ultimately deriving from written Chinese 眼鏡. Eyeglasses are first mentioned in Chinese in the 1400s as 叆叇 ‎(aidai?), a transcription of an Arabic term. By the late Ming dynasty, eyeglasses appear in writing as 叆叇即眼鏡 (“aidai, i.e. eye-lenses”), using the compound term 眼鏡 ‎(literally “eye + lens”).

Noun

眼鏡 ‎(hiragana がんちょー, romaji ganchō)

1. eyeglasses

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Compound of 眼 ‎(mī, “eye”, also spelled 目 when used in isolation) +‎ 鏡 ‎(kagan, “mirror; lens”).

Noun

眼鏡 ‎(hiragana みーかがん, romaji mīkagan)

1. eyeglasses