がらくた

Compound of がら (gara), from がらがら (garagara), an onomatopoeia for the sound of objects bumping against each other + くた (kuta), perhaps a contraction of 芥 (akuta, “trash, rubbish”) or related to verb 朽つ (kutsu, “to rot”, Classical and Old Japanese form of modern 朽ちる (kuchiru, “to rot”)).[1] Compare other terms containing this くた (kuta) element, such as くたくた (kutakuta, “broken down, worn out”), 草臥れる (kutabireru, “to become exhausted”), 腐す (kutasu, “to make something rot, to ruin something”), 鶏 (kutakake, “chicken”, originally pejorative, literally “rubbish clucker”).

Kanji spellings such as 瓦落多 and 我楽多 are ateji.[1][2]

First cited to a text from 1724.[1]

• (Tokyo) がらくた [gàrákútá] (Heiban – [0])[3][2][4]
• IPA^(key): [ɡa̠ɾa̠kɯ̟̊ᵝta̠]

がらくた or ガラクタ • (garakuta) 

1. [from 1773] items that are useless or without value, junk, rubbish

   「こんなガラクタに一(いち)日(にち)がかりとはハリネズミの面(つら)汚(よご)しだな。」

   “Konna garakuta ni ichinichi-gakari to wa harinezumi no tsurayogoshi da na.”

   “This shoddy craftsmanship is a shame to all hedgehog-kind.”

   Synonym: (oddment, partial set, one-off) 半端物 (hanpamono)

2. [from 1724] a person who is useless or without value, trash

   Synonym: やくざもの (yakuzamono)