飛行機

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 飛行機で大阪に行きます。▶ —
   I will go to Osaka by airplane.
2. 飛行機の時間に間に合いました。▶ —
   I made it in time for the flight.

Collocations

Mnemonic

ひこうき — 飛行機, Sino-Japanese. A Meiji-era Japanese coinage. Open the three kanji: 飛 (fly) + 行 (go) + 機 (machine) = 'a flying-going machine'. The most interesting historical fact ── this word is a kanji coinage Meiji-era Japan made while taking in Western aviation technology. And that coinage then flowed out into Korean and Chinese ── Korean bihaenggi (bihaenggi, 飛行機) and Chinese 飞机 fēijī both borrowed from Japanese 飛行機. A whole stratum of Meiji kanji coinages built the framework of East Asian modern vocabulary ── 哲学 philosophy, 経済 economics, 科学 science, 政治 politics, 社会 society all rode the same current. A curious reversal: China invented the characters in antiquity, but for modern vocabulary, Japanese-built kanji compounds were reimported. You meet these characters again in Mandarin Roots, as 飛 · 行 · 機.

Quick check

1. Origin of the word hikouki / fēijī / bi-haeng-gi?

   • Meiji-era Japanese coinage from Western technology, exported to Korean and Chinese
   • Classical Chinese origin
   • Korean origin
   • Direct English translation