Where does “変わり身” come from?
変わり身 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 身, from Japanese み, from Japanese 見る, from Japanese 夢, from Old Japanese 夢, from Japanese 目, from Middle Chinese 目.
変わり身 (Japanese): a quick shift of position; flexibility in...
Definitions
- a quick shift of position; flexibility in...
Ancestry of “変わり身”, step by step
変わり身 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Japanese 身
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japanese | 身 | a body; a living body; a dead body, a corpse |
| 2 | Japanese | み | 身 body; 実 fruit; nut; content; 霊, 神 spirit; god |
| 3 | Japanese | 見る | to see, to watch, to observe, to look at... |
| 4 | Japanese | 夢 | a dream; a vision; leaving reality to the state... |
| 5 | Old Japanese | 夢 | a dream |
| 6 | Japanese | 目 | an order in biology: smaller than a class, bigger... |
| 7 | Middle Chinese | 目 | — |
via Japanese 変わり
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japanese | 変わり | a change, an alteration; a substitute |