A Study of the Japanese Adjectival Suffix "-kuroshii"

Abstract

There are many examples of the adjectives with the suffix -kuroshii in Early Modern Japanese materials, e.g., atsukuroshii "too hot", katakuroshii "too hard", and musakuroshii "dirty". The suffix -kuroshii attached mainly to ku-adjectives. It expressed the meaning of negative evaluation, displeasure or criticism, of the speaker toward the object. The form -kuroshii has traditionally been regarded as the result of the change -kurushii > -kuroshii. However, in fact, the original form of -kuroshii is -kurawashii, as found in mediaeval materials. The form -kuroshii was established by the change -kurawashii > -kuraushii (this form is attested in contemporary dialects) > -kuroshii. -Kuroshii developed once again to -kurushii in contemporary Japanese (e.g. atsukurushii "too hot") due to its formal and semantic resemblance to the suffix -gurushii as in miguru-shii "unseemly", ikigurushii "stifling".