Etymology Explorer › Japanese

Where does “すみ” come from?

すみ (Japanese) comes from Japanese み, from Japanese 見る, from Japanese 夢, from Old Japanese 夢, from Japanese 目, from Middle Chinese 目.

Ancestry of “すみ”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japaneseみ身 body; 実 fruit; nut; content; 霊, 神 spirit; god
2Japanese見るto see, to watch, to observe, to look at...
3Japanese夢a dream; a vision; leaving reality to the state...
4Old Japanese夢a dream
5Japanese目an order in biology: smaller than a class, bigger...
6Middle Chinese目—
Every word from Middle Chinese 目 →