This month's series on foreign words of interest is about "motorcycle. We Japanese use it everyday and basically mean "motorcycle.
But in English."bike".When people use the word "bicycle," they often mean "bicycle," not "motorcycle. In fact, if you look up the word "bicycle" in a dictionary, it is the first word listed. Motorcycle comes second.
If you want to say "motorcycle" to avoid being misunderstood as a bicycle, you can say "motorcycle" or "motorbike" to be more certain.
However, even in English, "bike" still means both a bicycle and a motorcycle. It may be that the bicycle was invented first and the motorcycle was added later, but many Japanese may not feel at home with the word.
Let's look at the spelling of BICYCLE
What is "bike" in the first place?"bicycle".This is an abbreviated way of saying "a". So, I would like you to take a closer look at this spelling.
bicycle = bi- + cycle
If you observe the spelling of English (and not only English) carefully, you can sort of see its meaning and pronunciation.
Now, let's take a look at this"bi-"What is a "*"? It is a prefix, which is added before the body, or stem, of a word to supplement, or sometimes negate, the meaning of the stem.
By the way, a person who speaks two languages is called "bilingual. In fact, it is the same as "bilingual".bi-means "2". This is apparently based on Latin.
And,bi-come aftercycle(cycle), which is, to some extent, Japaneseized. It is the same thing as saying "a good cycle will be formed. The English-Japanese dictionary also says "cycle" or "circulation.
In other words, the literal translation of the word "bicycle" is "two cycles. In short, it means a vehicle with two circulating things - in other words, wheels.
However, "wheels" are normal,"wheel".The word is often used. If it were."biwheel".I think it would have been better with But I don't know about that.
If you want to confirm this point, please do your own research. I am also very busy and do not have time to check everything perfectly (in other words, my English skills are only that good...).
(in Japanese history)I did a little more research and found a more plausible answer, so the following has been added and modified)
The word "kuklos" is apparently derived from the Greek word "kuklos," which has the same meaning as the English words "wheel" and "circle.
It was bi- (two) + kuklos (wheel) = bicycle.
A bike is (or should be) a bicycle to begin with.
bicycle・・・Motorcycles that existed before motorcycles. In other words, it is a bicycle. The abbreviation is "bike.
↓arrow (mark or symbol)
Technological developments led to the introduction of motorcycles, called motorcycles or motorbikes.
Incidentally, when the word "cycle" is used as a verb, it means "to ride a bicycle" or "to go out on a bicycle. It does not mean "to ride a motorcycle" or "to go out on a motorcycle." (When Japanese say "cycling," they mean going out on a bicycle exclusively.)
It can be inferred from this that the word "cycle" itself is basically "bicycle", and it seems natural that "bike", an abbreviation of "bicycle", is often used to mean "bicycle". It seems natural that "bike," short for "bicycle," is often used to mean "bicycle," too.
Originally, bike meant bicycle, but later motorcycle and motorbike appeared.
Some time after the invention of the motorbike, someone started saying, "Let's abbreviate the word "motor" and call this one a bike," and the word spread. As a result, the word "motorcycle" came to be used to mean a motorcycle even when it is simply said "bike" without the word "motor. I think this is what happened.
Whether this imagination is correct or not, the English word "bike" also means "motorcycle," so it is not a serious mistake for the Japanese to use the word "bike" exclusively to mean "motorcycle.
The word "motorbike" seems to refer to a rather small motorcycle, especially in North American English. Therefore, when you want to say "motorcycle" to a foreigner, regardless of whether it is a small or large motorcycle, it may be safer to say "motorcycle" regardless of whether the person you are talking to speaks British or American English.
After all this research, I finally have some idea of what is going on. Language is a deep and interesting thing. I realize once again that learning a foreign language is a never-ending journey.
Well, in my case, even in my learning, my imagination and romance with the people who have used the word, or to put it bluntly, with humanity, comes into it. That is why I spend so much time writing every single one of these things.
In a sense, it is probably a waste of time. However, I am willing to divide my time between the two, thinking that this is another way to enjoy the language.
And by the way, what do you call a "tricycle"?
Now that I have written about motorcycles, I would like to think about tricycles as an added bonus. What is this called in English?
The very fact that motorcycles are called bicycles is a clue to this question.bi-means "two", so we only need to know "three".
Earlier, I wrote that a person who speaks two languages is called bilingual. What do we call a person who speaks three languages? It is,"trilingual".(trilingual).
tri-is "three," so spelled the same way as for a two-wheeled vehicle, a three-wheeled vehicle would look like this
tri- + cycle = tricycle
Just as bicylcle is pronounced like biciccor, tricycle is pronounced like tricycor. In addition,"trike".（The shortened term (trike) is the same as that used for motorcycles.
As a further bonus,tri-Let's look at some of the words with "~" in them. All of them mean "three ~".
Anyway,bi-What is the "two -"?tri-Something is likely to be "three ~'s", so please try to analogize it that way (but this is not always the case, since English words also have their own various systems of etymology).
triangleTriangle
tripodTripod
triathlonTriathlon (3 events)
I could go on and on, and I'm full of ideas to do so again, but there's no end in sight. I am a person who loves words, so I can't stop talking about this kind of thing.
Well, that's all for now...See You!