Where does “小白鳥” come from?
小白鳥 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 白鳥, from Japanese 白, from Middle Chinese 白.
小白鳥 (Japanese): a tundra swan
Ancestry of “小白鳥”, step by step
小白鳥 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Japanese 白鳥
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Japanese | 白鳥 | a swan; a white-feathered bird |
| 2 | Japanese | 白 | the color white; innocence; a white go stone |
| 3 | Middle Chinese | 白 | — |
via Japanese 小
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Japanese | 小 | smallness; small size, small; Short for 小の月;... |
| 2 | Old Japanese | ささ | — |