可愛い

/kawajui/ → /kawaiː/

Shift in pronunciation from kawayui below.[1]

The kanji spelling 可愛い is an example of ateji (当て字) and jukujikun (熟字訓), and uses an irregular reading of 愛. The phonological resemblance to Chinese 可愛／可爱 (kě'ài, “lovable”, Mandarin kě'ài, Min Nan khó-ài) is coincidental. Note that the medial -w- here is not an excrescence added between ka (可) and ai (愛), since the word is not formed from these morphemes.

Already realized phonetically as /kawaiː/ by the early 1600s, and possibly found alongside older form kawayui, as seen in the 1603 edition of the Nippo Jisho.[2]

• (informal, cutesy) かあいい (kāii), きゃわいい (kyawaii)
• (slang) カワユス (kawayusu), かわE(いい) (kawaii)

• (Irregular reading)
• (Tokyo) かわい​い [kàwáíꜜì] (Nakadaka – [3])[3][4]
• IPA^(key): [ka̠ɰᵝa̠ii]

• Audio

  (file)

可(か)愛(わい)い • (kawaii) ^{←かはいい (kafaī)?} -i, adverbial 可(か)愛(わい)く (kawaiku)

1. lovable, beloved

   可(か)愛(わい)い子(こ)には旅(たび)をさせよ

   kawaii ko ni wa tabi o saseyo

   spare the rod and spoil the child

   (literally, “send your beloved child on a journey”)

2. cute, adorable

   かわいい子(こ)と付(つ)き合(あ)う

   kawaii ko to tsukiau

   to go out with (date) a cute girl

   食(た)べちゃいたいくらい可愛(かわい)い

   tabechaitai kurai kawaii

   so cute I could just eat you up

   • 2003 September 22, Uraku, Akinobu, “第(だい)63(ろくじゅうさん)話(わ)　幼(おさな)い記(き)憶(おく) [Chapter 63: Childish Memories]”, in 東(とう)京(きょう)アンダーグラウンド [Tokyo Underground], volume 11 (fiction), Square Enix, →ISBN, page 99:

     暴(あば)れなきゃ可(か)愛(わい)い顔(かお)なんだよな

     Abarenakya kawaii kao na n da yo na

     Her face when she’s not mad is actually pretty cute.

   • 2018, Akasaka, Aka, “第(だい)92(きゅうじゅうに)話(わ)　かぐや様(さま)を照(て)れさせたい [Chapter 92: He Wants to Make Kaguya-sama Feel Embarrassed]”, in かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜 [Kaguya-sama Wants to Make Him Confess: The Intellectual Battle of Love Between Geniuses], volume 10 (fiction), Shueisha:

     私(わたし)なんかより藤(ふじ)原(わら)さんの方(ほう)が可(か)愛(わい)いですよ

     Watashi nanka yori Fujiwara-san no hō ga kawaii desu yo

     Fujiwara's more cute than I am.

     可(か)愛(わい)さと綺(き)麗(れい)さは別(べつ)物(もの)だろ

     Kawaisa to kireisa wa betsumono daro

     Cuteness and beauty aren't the same now, are they?

Often spelled in hiragana.

From classical Japanese /kawo hajuɕi/ → /kawajui/.

A contraction of classical 顔映し (kawahayushi, “embarrassing, shameful”). The meaning evolved from shameful to evoking pity, to evoking compassion, and then to lovable.[1] The kanji spelling appears to be jukujikun (熟字訓), from the above reading. Compare Korean 예쁘다 (yeppeu-da), which originally meant poor (as in "poor, poor kid") but now means pretty.

• (Irregular reading)
• (Tokyo) かわゆ​い [kàwáyúꜜì] (Nakadaka – [3])[3]
• IPA^(key): [ka̠ɰᵝa̠jɯ̟ᵝi]

可愛(かわゆ)い • (kawayui) ^{←かはゆい (kafayui)?} -i, adverbial 可愛(かわゆ)く (kawayuku)

1. embarrassed, having a guilty conscience: see 顔映し (kawahayushi).
2. (obsolete) pitiable, pitiful
   • 1632, Diego Collado, Dictionarium sive thesauri linguae Iaponicae compendium

     Miſerabilis, e: coſa que cauſa laſtima, cavaij.

     (Latin:) Wretched; (Spanish:) thing that causes pity, kawaii.

3. lovable, adorable, cute

• 可愛(えの)岳(だけ) (Enodake)