Where does “大海烏” come from?
大海烏 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 大, from Old Japanese 大, from Proto-Japonic əpə — big, large; many.
大海烏 (Japanese): a great auk
Ancestry of “大海烏”, step by step
大海烏 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Japanese 大
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Japanese | 大 | big, large; the large part of; arch- |
| 2 | Old Japanese | 大 | big, large; large |
| 3 | Proto-Japonic | əpə | big, large; many |
via Japanese 海烏
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Japanese | 海烏 | a common murre (Uria aalge) |
| 2 | Japanese | 海 | a sea, an ocean; a lake; an object covering over... |
| 3 | Old Japanese | うな | — |