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痛い - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: いたい

Japanese

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Kanji in this term
いた
いた
Grade: 6
kun'yomi
Alternative spellings
甚い
イタい (particularly the "cringy" sense)

Etymology

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From Old Japanese いた (itasi),[1][2][3][4] from Proto-Japonic *eta (painful). Might originally be an interjection; compare English ouch.

Pronunciation

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  • Tokyo pitch accent of inflected forms of 「いた
Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary
Stem forms
Continuative (連用形れんようけい) いた たく
[íꜜtàkù]
[ìtáꜜkù]
Terminal (終止しゅうしがた) いた [ìtáꜜì]
Attributive (連体れんたいがた) いた [ìtáꜜì]
Key constructions
Informal negative いたくない たくない
くない
[íꜜtàkùnàì]
[ìtáꜜkùnàì]
Informal past いたかった たかった
かった
[íꜜtàkàttà]
[ìtáꜜkàttà]
Informal negative past いたくなかった たくなかった
くなかった
[íꜜtàkùnàkàttà]
[ìtáꜜkùnàkàttà]
Formal いたいです いです [ìtáꜜìdèsù]
Conjunctive いたくて たくて
くて
[íꜜtàkùtè]
[ìtáꜜkùtè]
Conditional いたければ たければ
ければ
[íꜜtàkèrèbà]
[ìtáꜜkèrèbà]

Adjective

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いた(いた) (itai-i (adverbial いた(いた) (itaku))

  1. painful
    あたま(あたま)いた(いた)
    Atama ga itai.
    I have a headache.
    はら(なか)いた(いた)
    Onaka ga itai.
    My stomach hurts.
    いた(いた)っ!
    Ita'!
    Ow!
  2. イタい: (slang) cringy; embarrassing
  3. (obsolete) wonderful, pleasant

Usage notes

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The desiderative suffix たい (tai) is ultimately derived from this word. The sense of “wonderful” may have influenced this development.

The shift in meaning towards only meaning “painful” is similar to the changes of the word すばらしい (subarashii, terrible→wonderful) or of English terrific, sick, and wicked, and contrary to awful.

Inflection

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Synonyms

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Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ Frellesvig, Bjarke, Stephen Wright Horn, et al. (eds.) (2023) “Old Japanese ita-”, in Oxford-NINJAL Corpus of Old Japanese[1]
  2. ^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語こくごだい辞典じてん新装しんそうばん [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  3. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林だいじりん [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  4. ^ Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉だいじせん [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  5. ^ Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1974), しん明解めいかい国語こくご辞典じてん [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Second edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō