大おお海老えび

Meanings

large shrimp; king prawn; lobster

Refers to large shrimp or prawns, especially in culinary contexts. In some regions or older usage, can also refer to lobster, but modern Japanese usually distinguishes lobster as 伊勢海老 (いせえび).

今こん夜やの夕ゆう食しょくは大おお海老えびの天てんぷらだ。
Tonight's dinner is large shrimp tempura.
市いち場ばで新しん鮮せんな大おお海老えびを買かった。
I bought fresh king prawns at the market.

Kanji

大large, big
海sea, ocean
老old man, old age, grow old
蝦shrimp, prawn, lobster

Related words

海老えび
海老 is the general term for shrimp/prawn of any size, while 大海老 specifically means large shrimp or prawns.
伊い勢せ海老えび
伊勢海老 is the standard word for spiny lobster, whereas 大海老 can sometimes refer to lobster in older or regional usage but is now mostly used for large shrimp.

Built from

大おお+海老えび

Written forms

大おお海老えび
Standard kanji spelling for large shrimp/prawns.
大おおエビ
Mixed kanji-katakana spelling, common in menus and casual writing.
大おお蝦えび
rarely-used kanji form
Rare kanji form using 蝦; 海老 is much more common.

Etymology

Compound of 大 (おお, 'big') and 海老 (えび, 'shrimp/prawn'). The kanji 海老 literally means 'sea old man', a reference to the curved back of a shrimp resembling an elderly person.