I keep seeing these things and I always wonder
if they are a butterfly 蝶 or a dragonfly 蜻蛉
Well it turns out that the "Ebony Jewelwing" ハグロトンボ
is neither, its a damselfly. I had never heard of this kind
of insect before. The difference between a dragonfly and
a damselfly is that when not flying, a dragonflies wings stick
out perpendicular to its body, but when a damselfly is not
flying it folds its wings parallel to its body. WOW!!!
But I have a question for you, what does the ハグロ mean?
It sounds like お歯黒 BLACK TEETH !? What !?!?
It is black but why black TEETH dragonfly?
Or am I just mistaken...?
I also did not know a damselfly. Thank you for your good post!
ReplyDeleteNice try. You asked a good question. The ハグロ is composed of ハ and グロ. グロ means black as you know. ハ means WING. The wing in English is translated into ハネ in Japanese. So, ハネグロand ハグロ have the same meaning, but ハネ is shrunk to ハ sometimes. For example, the sound (オト) produced by a wing is ハオト in Japanese. ハネオト is not a mistake, but it is a little hard to pronounce for Japanese people.
Thanks Masa, now I understand.
ReplyDeleteハネ as in 羽 but drop the ネ。
Animal names are often written in カタカナ。
I should always check the 漢字。
羽黒蜻蛉 not 歯黒蜻蛉。
Thanks for such a great answer,
and now I know 羽音 (buzz or hum).
:Phil