貪る

Japanese

Kanji in this term
貪
むさぼ Grade: S
kun'yomi

Alternative spellings
慾る毎る昧る

Etymology

Compound of むさ (musa, “greed, covetousness, wantonness”, not used in isolation; the same musa found in むさい (musai, “greedy, covetous, wanton; dirty, impure, mean”) and むさと (musa to, greedily, wantonly, carelessly)) +‎ 欲る (horu, “to want, to desire”, obsolete in modern Japanese, only appearing in compounds).^[1] The horu changes to boru as an instance of rendaku (連(れん)濁(だく)).

Pronunciation

(Tokyo) むさぼる [mùsábóꜜrù] (Nakadaka – [3])^[2]
IPA^(key): [mɯ̟sa̠bo̞ɾɯ̟]

Verb

貪(むさぼ)る • (musaboru) transitive godan (stem 貪(むさぼ)り (musabori), past 貪(むさぼ)った (musabotta))

to be greedy for something, to crave something
to covet something
(in compound verbs) to do something greedily or hungrily
彼(かれ)は、講義(こうぎ)の合間(あいま)に大好(だいす)きな小説(しょうせつ)を貪(むさぼ)り読(よ)んでいた。
Kare wa, kōgi no aima ni daisuki na shōsetsu o musabori yonde ita.
He was hungrily reading a favorite novel between the lectures.

Conjugation

Conjugation of "貪る" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs)
Katsuyōkei ("stem forms")
Mizenkei ("imperfective")	貪ら	むさぼら	musabora
Ren’yōkei ("continuative")	貪り	むさぼり	musabori
Shūshikei ("terminal")	貪る	むさぼる	musaboru
Rentaikei ("attributive")	貪る	むさぼる	musaboru
Kateikei ("hypothetical")	貪れ	むさぼれ	musabore
Meireikei ("imperative")	貪れ	むさぼれ	musabore
Key constructions
Passive	貪られる	むさぼられる	musaborareru
Causative	貪らせる貪らす	むさぼらせるむさぼらす	musaboraseru musaborasu
Potential	貪れる	むさぼれる	musaboreru
Volitional	貪ろう	むさぼろう	musaborō
Negative	貪らない	むさぼらない	musaboranai
Negative continuative	貪らず	むさぼらず	musaborazu
Formal	貪ります	むさぼります	musaborimasu
Perfective	貪った	むさぼった	musabotta
Conjunctive	貪って	むさぼって	musabotte
Hypothetical conditional	貪れば	むさぼれば	musaboreba

References

^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988), 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

“貪る”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[1] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026

[KDJ-1] Shōgaku Tosho (1988), 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

[DJR-2] Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

[1]

[2]