More about the origin of the Japanese word くるま (kuruma) [a confession]

By | April 2, 2016

In my last post, I wrote about how the Japanese word “くるま” (which means “car”) originated from the words ”来る” (to come) and “魔” (devil).

While these two words are actual words with the meanings I specified, the truth is that they have nothing to do with the word ”くるま”.

After all, my post yesterday was written on April 1, which to many is known as April Fool’s day, where jokes are typically played both in everyday life and in various media outlets.  (:

The actual origin of the word “くるま” is said to come from the following: (based on this source)

  • くる: from the expression “くるくる” (to spin around) and “くるめく” (to get dizzy)
  • ま: from the word わ (輪)which means “wheel”

By the way, the tradition of doing pranks (いたずら) on April 1st is also known in Japan to a certain extent and has been done by some Japanese news outlets (source).

For the next 364 days you can expect the return of truthful content on this blog, until the next April fool’s day (:

(Visited 873 times, 1 visits today)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.