可愛い

Kanji in this term
可	愛
か Grade: 5 (ateji)	あい > わい Grade: 4 (ateji)
on'yomi	irregular

/kawajui/ → /kawaiː/

Shift in pronunciation from kawayui below.^[1]

The kanji spelling 可愛い is an example of ateji (当て字), and uses an irregular reading of 愛. The phonological resemblance to Chinese 可愛／可爱 (kě'ài, “lovable”, Mandarin kě'ài, Min Nan khó-ài) is coincidental. Note that the medial -w- here is not an excrescence added between ka (可) and ai (愛), since the word is not formed from these morphemes.

Already realized phonetically as /kawaiː/ by the early 1600s, and possibly found alongside older form kawayui, as seen in the 1603 edition of the Nippo Jisho.^[2]

• (informal, cutesy) かあいい (kāii), きゃわいい (kyawaii)
• (slang) カワユス (kawayusu), かわE(いい) (kawaii)

• (Tokyo) かわいい [kàwáíꜜì] (Nakadaka – [3])^[3][4]
• IPA^(key): [ka̠β̞a̠ii]

• Audio:

  (file)

可(か)愛(わい)い • (kawaii) ^{←かはいい (kafaii)?}-i (adverbial 可(か)愛(わい)く (kawaiku))

1. lovable, beloved

   可(か)愛(わい)い子(こ)には旅(たび)をさせよ

   kawaii ko ni wa tabi o saseyo

   spare the rod and spoil the child

   (literally, “send your beloved child on a journey”)

2. cute, adorable

   Synonyms: (Tōhoku, Hokkaido) めんこい, (Tsugaru) めごい

   かわいい子(こ)と付(つ)き合(あ)う

   kawaii ko to tsukiau

   to go out with (date) a cute girl

   食(た)べちゃいたいくらい可愛(かわい)い

   tabechaitai kurai kawaii

   so cute I could just eat you up

   • 2003 September 22, Akinobu Uraku, “第(だい)63(ろくじゅうさん)話(わ)　幼(おさな)い記(き)憶(おく)”, in 東(とう)京(きょう)アンダーグラウンド, volume 11 (fiction), Square Enix, →ISBN, page 99:

     暴(あば)れなきゃ可(か)愛(わい)い顔(かお)なんだよな

     Abarenakya kawaii kao na n da yo na

     Her face when she’s not mad is actually pretty cute.

   • 2018, Aka Akasaka, “第(だい)92(きゅうじゅうに)話(わ)　かぐや様(さま)を照(て)れさせたい”, in かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜, volume 10 (fiction), Shueisha:

     私(わたし)なんかより藤(ふじ)原(わら)さんの方(ほう)が可(か)愛(わい)いですよ

     Watashi nanka yori Fujiwara-san no hō ga kawaii desu yo

     Fujiwara's more cute than I am.

     可(か)愛(わい)さと綺(き)麗(れい)さは別(べつ)物(もの)だろ

     Kawaisa to kireisa wa betsumono daro

     Cuteness and beauty aren't the same now, are they?

• Often spelled in hiragana.

Kanji in this term
可	愛
かわゆ
Grade: 5	Grade: 4
jukujikun

From classical Japanese /kawo hajuɕi/ → /kawajui/.

A contraction of classical 顔映し (kawahayushi, “embarrassing, shameful”). The meaning evolved from shameful to evoking pity, to evoking compassion, and then to lovable.^[1] The kanji spelling appears to be jukujikun (熟字訓), from the above reading. Compare Korean 예쁘다 (yeppeu-da), which originally meant poor (as in "poor, poor kid") but now means pretty.

• (Tokyo) かわゆい [kàwáyúꜜì] (Nakadaka – [3])^[3]
• IPA^(key): [ka̠β̞a̠jɯ̟i]

可愛(かわゆ)い • (kawayui) ^{←かはゆい (kafayui)?}-i (adverbial 可愛(かわゆ)く (kawayuku))

1. embarrassed, having a guilty conscience: see 顔映し (kawahayushi).
2. (obsolete) pitiable, pitiful
   • 1632, Diego Collado, Dictionarium sive thesauri linguae Iaponicae compendium

     Miſerabilis, e: coſa que cauſa laſtima, cavaij.
     (Latin:) Wretched; (Spanish:) thing that causes pity, kawaii.

     Miſerabilis, e: coſa que cauſa laſtima, cavaij.
     (Latin:) Wretched; (Spanish:) thing that causes pity, kawaii.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. lovable, adorable, cute

• 可愛(えの)岳(だけ) (Enodake)