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ArchivesRe: what does Satsuki mean?
in reply to a message by satsukikitsune
A name with a really beautiful etymology!
Satsuki is the 5th month in the calendar, not in the "conventional" Gregorian calendar, but in the old Japanese calendar which was modelled after the Chinese calendar. It is basically a lunar calendar, with the start of the year somewhere around end of January/start of February, so the days of Satsuki took place not in our May, but mostly in our June.
To translate Satsuki with "May" just because May is the 5th month in *our* calendar is thus somewhat misleading. One could even say the word is un-translatable because we do not have words for such lunar-based months in English!
The name of the month written in Kanji is:
皐月
The first Kanji means "swamp" or "shore":
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=7690
The name of the month can be read as "swamp month". ("tsuki" is the normal Japanese word for "month", spoken as thus.) Satsuki the given name is only written with this single Kanji, without the second for "month".
Now, why swamp month? Well, because in June it is rainy season in Japan!
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
Satsuki is the 5th month in the calendar, not in the "conventional" Gregorian calendar, but in the old Japanese calendar which was modelled after the Chinese calendar. It is basically a lunar calendar, with the start of the year somewhere around end of January/start of February, so the days of Satsuki took place not in our May, but mostly in our June.
To translate Satsuki with "May" just because May is the 5th month in *our* calendar is thus somewhat misleading. One could even say the word is un-translatable because we do not have words for such lunar-based months in English!
The name of the month written in Kanji is:
皐月
The first Kanji means "swamp" or "shore":
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=7690
The name of the month can be read as "swamp month". ("tsuki" is the normal Japanese word for "month", spoken as thus.) Satsuki the given name is only written with this single Kanji, without the second for "month".
Now, why swamp month? Well, because in June it is rainy season in Japan!
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
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