桜ん坊

Etymology

/sakuranbau/ → /sakuranbɔː/ → /sakuranboː/

Etymology unclear. Leading theories include:

• Compound of 桜 (sakura, “cherry, cherry tree”) +‎ の (no, possessive particle) +‎ 坊 (bō, “boy, monk”, in reference to the tradition of shaven heads, indicating the smooth skin of the cherry fruit)
• Compound of 桜 (sakura, “cherry, cherry tree”) +‎ 桃 (momo, “peach”, in reference to fruit in general; with a phonetic shift from /m/ to /b/ and shift from /bobo/ to /boː/)

Given the historical reading of sakuranbau, matching the historical bau reading of 坊, the initial derivation seems more likely.

The sakuranbō represents a regular historical shift from older sakuranbau. Sakuranbō with the long ō has been somewhat superseded in modern Japanese by the shortened reading sakuranbo.

The alternative 桜桃 spelling is an example of jukujikun, from Middle Chinese 櫻桃 (ʔˠɛŋ dɑu).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) さくらんぼー [sàkúráńbóó] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [sa̠kɯ̟ɾã̠mbo̞ː]

• (Tokyo) さくらんぼ [sàkúráńbó] (Heiban – [0])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [sa̠kɯ̟ɾã̠mbo̞]

Noun

桜(さくら)ん坊(ぼう) or 桜(さくら)ん坊(ぼ) or 桜(サクラ)ん坊(ボ) • (sakuranbō or sakuranbo) ^{←さくらんばう (sakuranbau)?}

1. (fruit) cherry (mostly used for Japanese cherries)

   Synonym: (mostly used for non-Japanese cherries) チェリー (cherī)

References