大だい根こん

also: だいこ

だ

い

こ

ん

Common wordJLPTN1Freq.FrequencyTop 10,000

Meanings

1

noun

daikon radish

The large white East Asian radish, a staple vegetable in Japanese cuisine.

大だい根こんを薄うすく切きってサラダに入いれた。
I sliced the daikon thinly and added it to the salad.
冬ふゆになると大だい根こんが安やすくなる。
Daikon gets cheaper in winter.

2

noun

ham actor; wooden actor

abbreviation

Abbreviation of 大根役者; a derogatory term for a bad or stiff actor. The metaphor comes from the idea that daikon never causes food poisoning no matter how much you eat, implying the actor's performance is harmless but unskilled.

Written forms

大根Usage83%
- だいこん
  Standard kanji spelling for the vegetable and the derived actor sense.
- だいこ
ダイコンUsage13%
kana-only spelling
Katakana spelling often used in botanical or culinary contexts.
だいこんUsage4%
Kana spelling is common in everyday writing, especially when the vegetable is the topic.
だいこUsage1%
Rare abbreviated reading; mostly found in older or dialectal usage.

Kanji

大large, big
根root, radical, head (pimple)

Similar words

大だい根こん役やく者しゃ
The full, more explicit term for a bad actor; 大根 is the abbreviated slang form.

Etymology

The vegetable sense is native. The 'bad actor' sense is a shortening of 大根役者, from a folk belief that daikon never causes food poisoning, suggesting the actor's performance is harmless but unskilled.