Where does “きりがない” come from?
きりがない (Japanese) comes from Japanese 切り, from Japanese 切る, from Japanese 裏切り, from Japanese 裏 — back; behind; other side; inside; reverse side of...
Ancestry of “きりがない”, step by step
きりがない traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.
via Japanese 切り
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Japanese | 切り | limits, bounds, end; cutter; way of cutting |
| 2 | Japanese | 切る | to cut, to slice, to carve; cut down, fell, chop... |
| 3 | Japanese | 裏切り | treachery, betrayal |
| 4 | Japanese | 裏 | back; behind; other side; inside; reverse side of... |
via Japanese が
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Japanese | が | Indicates the subject of a sentence; conjunction;... |
| 2 | Finnish | -nka | Forms nouns, mainly bird names (in dialects) and some toponyms |
via Japanese 無い
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Japanese | 無い | nonexistent; not possessed or unavailable for one... |