ハツカダイコン

ハ

ツ

カ

ダ

イ

コ

ン

Meanings

1

noun

radish (Raphanus sativus var. sativus)

usually written using kana alone

Refers specifically to the small, round, red-skinned radish often called 'French breakfast radish' or simply 'radish' in English. The name 二十日 (はつか) means 'twenty days', referring to its quick growing time.

サラダにハツカダイコンを薄うすく切きって入いれた。

I thinly sliced some radishes and added them to the salad.

ハツカダイコンは種たねをまいてから約やく二十はつ日かで収しゅう穫かくできる。

Radishes can be harvested about twenty days after sowing the seeds.

Kanji

二two, two radical (no. 7)
十ten
日day, sun, Japan
大large, big
根root, radical, head (pimple)
廿twenty

Related words

大だい根こん
大根 is the large, long, white Japanese radish (daikon), while ハツカダイコン is a small, round, red-skinned variety.
ラディッシュ
ラディッシュ is a direct loanword from English 'radish' and can refer to the same vegetable, but ハツカダイコン is the more common Japanese term.

Written forms

はつかだいこん
Hiragana spelling is also seen, but katakana is more common.
二十日はつか大だい根こん
Kanji spelling is rare and mainly found in older or formal texts; the katakana form is strongly preferred.
廿はつ日か大だい根こん
Variant kanji spelling using 廿 for 二十; even rarer than 二十日大根.

Etymology

From 二十日 (はつか, 'twenty days') + 大根 (だいこん, 'daikon radish'), referring to the plant's short growing period of about twenty days from sowing to harvest.