後ろ

Japanese

Etymology

Kanji in this term
後
うし Grade: 2
kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
後

From Old Japanese.^[1] Appears in the Kojiki of 712 CE. Also cited to a portion of the Shoku Nihongi dated to 781, with the phonetic spelling 宇志呂 (usiro₂).^[2] In turn, from Proto-Japonic *osirə. Cognate with Hachijō おしろ (oshiro).

Ultimate derivation unknown. Might be from stem us- ("lost; gone, out of sight", as in 失う (ushinau, “to lose”), older verb 失す (usu, “to lose; to go away”)) + locative suffix -ro₂ indicating an interior (as in 所 (tokoro, “place”), 空ろ・虚ろ (utsuro, “emptiness, a hollow”), 洞・空・虚 (uro, “a hollow space in something”), 室 (muro, “room; cave”), possibly 心 (kokoro, “heart”)). The earliest sense of "somewhere out of sight"^[2] also suggests a connection with stem us-.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) うしろ [ùshíró] (Heiban – [0])^[3][4][5]
• IPA^(key): [ɯ̟ɕiɾo̞]

Noun

後(うし)ろ • (ushiro) 

1. the back, the behind, the rear (both spatially and temporally)
   • 720, Nihon Shoki, poem 120:
     , text available at ONCOJ here

     瀰儺度能于之藩能矩娜利于那倶娜梨(みなとのうしおのくだりうなくだり)于之盧(うしろ)母倶例尼飫岐底舸由舸武(もくれにおきてかゆかむ) [Man'yōgana]

     港(みなと)の潮(うしお)の下(くだ)り海下(うなくだ)り後(うし)ろも暮(く)れに置(お)きてか行(ゆ)かむ [Modern spelling]

     minato no ushio no kudari unakudari ushiro mo kure ni okiteka yukamu

     With the harbour's ebbing tide, as the sea goes down, with the darkness behind me. Leaving him, I must go.

2. one's backside

Derived terms

• 真後ろ
• 前後ろ
• 後ろめたい
• 後ろ暗い
• 後ろ向き
• 後ろ合わせ
• 後ろ姿
• 後ろ指
• 後ろ手
• 後ろ楯
• 後ろ盾
• 後ろ身頃
• 後ろ前
• 後ろ足
• 後ろ鉢巻
• 後ろ髪
• 後ろ明き

References

1. Frellesvig, Bjarke, Stephen Wright Horn, et al. (eds.) (2023) “Old Japanese usiro”, in Oxford-NINJAL Corpus of Old Japanese‎
2. “後ろ”, in 日本国語大辞典 [Nihon Kokugo Daijiten]‎ (in Japanese), concise edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2006
3. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →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
5. 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