溝鼠

Japanese

Kanji in this term
溝 鼠
どぶ
Grade: S 		ねずみ
Hyōgai
kun'yomi

Etymology

From 溝 (dobu, “ditch; gutter”) +‎ 鼠 (nezumi, “mouse; rat”). Compare Korean 시궁쥐 (sigungjwi, “brown rat”, literally “gutter rat”), Vietnamese chuột cống (“rat”, literally “gutter rat”).

Pronunciation

  • (Tokyo) どぶねずみ [dòbúnéꜜzùmì] (Nakadaka – [3])
  • IPA(key): [do̞bɯ̟ne̞zɨmʲi]

Noun

溝(どぶ)鼠(ねずみ) or 溝鼠(ドブネズミ) • (dobunezumi) 

  1. brown rat, Rattus norvegicus

Usage notes

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary).

References

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