Where does “大山鼠” come from?

大山鼠 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 山鼠, from Japanese 山, from Japanese 陰, from Middle Chinese 陰.

大山鼠 (Japanese): an edible dormouse

Definitions

  1. an edible dormouse

Ancestry of “大山鼠”, step by step

大山鼠 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 山鼠

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese山鼠a Japanese dormouse (Glirulus japonicus)
2Japanese山a mountain or hill; a mine; a heap, pile
3Japanese陰shadow, shade; hidden side; yin
4Middle Chinese陰—

via Japanese 大

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese大big, large; the large part of; arch-
2Old Japanese大big, large; large
3Proto-Japonicəpəbig, large; many
Every word from Middle Chinese 陰 →Every word from Japanese 陰 →Every word from Japanese 山 →