This feature began with an overview and has read the histories of four words — totemo, right and left, kiseru, and baka — in Shinmura Izuru’s Nihon no Kotoba (1940). To close, let’s sort out what became of each answer.
Note that the “present treatment” in this article is a generally known summary of etymological research, not a one-by-one check of individual dictionaries’ entries. To avoid overstatement, we separate what is firm from what is not.
Largely settled — kiseru
For kiseru, the explanation that it derives from Cambodian khsier (“tube”) is still the usual one today. The conclusion Shinmura reached, after withdrawing his own first idea (the Turkish town), survived as it was. It was the Genkai’s Spanish theory that was rewritten.
Rejecting the folk theory still holds — baka
For baka, Shinmura’s work divides into two parts. The part where he dismissed the Zhao Gao story as “a sinologist’s story-fitting” is still, as a rule, treated today as an after-the-fact popular etymology (folk etymology). The positive answer he followed, the Sanskrit theory (慕何 = moha, or 摩訶羅 = mahallaka), is often introduced as one leading theory but has not become the accepted view. A view that the etymology is unknown also remains strong. Research stays today where Shinmura himself wrote “I cannot decide.”
Still unsettled — right and left
Migi and hidari have not moved much from the state in which Shinmura lined up the theories. The theory tying it to the sun, the “bending” theory, and Shinmura’s own “gripping” theory all coexist, lacking decisive evidence. That Shinmura put the reservation “it is no more than that, I think” on his own theory can be said to have been an accurate self-assessment.
Where the observation is worth more than the etymology — totemo
Totemo is of a somewhat different character. Shinmura’s explanation of its etymology (a shortening of totemo kakutemo) is still a widely introduced, leading theory. But what may be more valuable for this word than the etymological conjecture is the record of the word in the midst of change, as Shinmura saw it in 1940. The sense that it “could only be used with negation,” and the observation that positive totemo was then a new, unfamiliar way of speaking, are valuable testimony that caught the moment a linguistic change was happening. The route of spread, “from mountain talk,” however, is something Shinmura wrote as hearsay, and can’t be called established fact.
What doesn’t change: Shinmura’s way of checking
The answers for the four words met different fates. But Shinmura’s way of checking keeps working even as the answers change. Let’s list again what it consisted of, as we’ve seen in this feature.
- Separate the characters from the word. (Baka) The age of the characters and the age of the word are different matters.
- Mark how far to assert. (Totemo) Assert the skeleton; hold back the details with “probably.”
- Say so when outside your own field. (Baka) State your standing plainly, as “a heckler of Sanskrit studies.”
- Correct yourself as soon as you see the error. (Kiseru, baka) Withdraw your first idea, and correct after publication.
- Write down the names of those who taught you. (Totemo, kiseru) An etymology is not decided by one person alone.
From Otsuki Fumihiko to Shinmura Izuru
In the Otsuki Fumihiko feature, we read the work of the Genkai, the first modern Japanese dictionary, which systematized the words of Japanese in dictionary form. Shinmura Izuru, as the next generation, did the work of re-checking, by evidence, the origin of each single word that goes into a dictionary. That in the kiseru chapter Shinmura calmly corrects the Genkai’s etymology is a symbol of it. A dictionary is not finished once written; later generations keep re-checking it — that relation between dictionary and etymology, these two men show across the generations.
Summary
| Verdict | Subject |
|---|---|
| Largely settled | Kiseru — Cambodian khsier (“tube”); Shinmura’s conclusion survived |
| Rejection holds | Baka — the Zhao Gao story is a folk etymology; the Sanskrit theory is one leading theory, not the accepted view |
| Unsettled | Right and left — theories coexist; Shinmura’s reservation was accurate |
| Observation valued | Totemo — the etymology is a leading theory, but the valuable thing is the record of observation in the midst of change |
| What remains | Separate characters from the word; mark how far to assert; correct yourself; name those who taught you |
In a nutshell — of the answers Shinmura Izuru gave for four words, some survive, some were rewritten, and some are still undecided. But his way of checking — lay out the evidence, mark how far to assert, and correct yourself plainly when wrong — does not change when the answers do.