馬車馬

Japanese
Kanji in this term
馬 車 馬
ば
Grade: 2		 しゃ
Grade: 1		 うま
Grade: 2
kan’on on’yomi kun’yomi

Etymology

Compound of 馬(ば)車(しゃ) (basha, “horse-drawn carriage”) + 馬(うま) (uma, “horse”).[1][2][3][4]

First attested in a text from 1898.[1]

The figurative sense developed from the way that carriage horses have blinkers, so all they see is what is in front of them.[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

Noun

馬(ば)車(しゃ)馬(うま) • (basha uma) 

  1. [from 1898] (literal) a carriage horse
  2. [from 1900] (figurative) a person absorbed in work and blind to all else

References
  1. Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  3. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  4. Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  5. NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK Publishing, →ISBN
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