螵蛸

螵蛸

1. egg-case of the praying mantis
2. (literary) short for 海螵蛸 (hǎipiāoxiāo, “cuttlebone”)

Compound of 祖父 (ōji, “grandad, old man”) +‎ が (ga, “-'s”, Old Japanese possessive particle) +‎ 陰嚢 (fuguri, “scrotum”),^[1][2][3][4] presumably from a vague visual similarity. The spelling is from Middle Chinese. First cited in the 本草和名 (Honzō Wamyō, “Japanese Names of Medicinal Plants”), the oldest surviving medical work in Japanese.^[1]

• (Tokyo) おおじがふぐり [òójígáfúꜜgùrì] (Nakadaka – [5])^[3]
• IPA^(key): [o̞ːʑiɡa̠ɸɯ̟ɡɯ̟ɾʲi]

螵蛸(おおじがふぐり) • (ōjigafuguri) ^{←おぽぢがふぐり (opodigafuguri)?}

1. [from 918] a mantis egg case

   Synonyms: (egg case in general) 卵塊 (rankai), 卵鞘 (ranshō)

Might be from Middle Chinese 螵蛸 (MC phjiew sjew), or might instead be a relatively recent borrowing from written Chinese 螵蛸 (piāoxiāo). This hyōshō pronunciation is not listed in dictionaries consulted to date,^{[1][2][3][4][5]} and online searches of the Japanese web suggest that this pronunciation might be limited to Chinese medicine contexts.

• IPA^(key): [ço̞ːɕo̞ː]

螵(ひょう)蛸(しょう) • (hyōshō) ^{←へうせう (feuseu)?}

1. [date uncertain] (traditional Chinese medicine) a mantis egg case