WORD-BUILDING. 33
and chi, the original word for "road." Mikado, " the Imperial Court," hence "the Emperor," is from the same mi and kado, "gate" (compare the " Sublime Porte" of Turkey). Yane "a roof," is from ya, the original word for house which we also find in yashiki, " a mansion, kutsu-ya, "a boot-maker's shop," etc., and ne, "root." Kagami, "a mirror," is from kage, "shadow," "reflec- tion," and miru, "to see." Place-names are almost al- ways compounds that can be easily resolved into their constituent elements, as Yoko-hama, "cross strand;" Naga-saki, " long cape ; " E-do (Yedo), " inlet mouth ; " Ara-kawa, "rough river;" 0-shima, " big island ; Fuji- san, " Fuji-mountain," "Fujiyama" [the etymology of Fuji is obscure, but probably the name is of Aino origin] ; Miya l ~no*-shlta?, " below 3 of 2 Shinto-shrine 1 ," i.e. " be- neath the shrine;" E 1 -no z -shima^, "island" 5 of 2 inlet 1 .' All Chinese words of more than one character are com- pounds, e.g. chawan, "a tea-cup," from cha, "tea," and wan, "a bowl;" sendo, "a boatman," properly "the master of a junk," from sen, "junk," "vessel," and to (nigori'ed to do), "head," "chief; "Tokyo from to, "east," and kyo, "capital city," etc., etc.. 51. As shown in the foregoing examples ofmichi, ' road," and Mikado, " Emperor," honorific prefixes sometimes enter into the actual formation of words. Generally, however, they are felt to be distinct entities, and are therefore written separately, as
o cha, lit. " honourable tea," i.e. "tea."
go mottomo, " " augustly right," i.e. " you are
quite right."
o mi asJii, lit. "honourable august feet," i.e. "your feet."
