乱麻

Chinese

For pronunciation and definitions of 乱麻 – see 亂麻 (“tangled skein; tremendous muddle; jumble”). (This term is the simplified form of 亂麻).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Japanese

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
乱	麻
らん Grade: 6	ま Grade: S
kan'on	kan'yōon

Alternative spelling
亂麻 (kyūjitai)

Possibly a learned borrowing from Chinese 亂麻／乱麻 (luànmá, “tangled rope; muddle, jumble”). Alternatively, may be a shift from kun'yomi to on'yomi for the term 乱れ麻, 乱れ緒 (midare-o, “tangled cord”), attested in the Man'yōshū and now archaic.

First cited to 1859.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) らんま [ráꜜǹmà] (Atamadaka – [1])^[2][3][4]
• IPA^(key): [ɾã̠mːa̠]

Noun

乱(らん)麻(ま) • (ranma) 

1. [from 1859] (literally) a tangled cord or string
2. [from 1859] (figuratively) a muddle, a jumble, chaos, a disordered state

   快(かい)刀(とう)乱(らん)麻(ま)を断(た)つ

   kaitō ranma o tatsu

   cut the Gordian knot

   (literally, “sever a tangled mess with a sharp sword”)

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
乱	麻
みだ(れ) Grade: 6	お Grade: S
kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
亂麻 (kyūjitai)

Alternative spelling that omits the okurigana, generally only found in older texts.

For pronunciation and definitions of 乱麻 – see the following entry.

【乱みだれ麻お】 [noun] (archaic) tangled thread or yarn

(This term, 乱麻, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

References

1. “乱麻”, in 日本国語大辞典 [Nihon Kokugo Daijiten]‎ (in Japanese), concise edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2006
2. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
3. NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
4. Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN