曽そう祖そ父ふ

also: ひいじじ · ひじじ · ひおおじ

そ

う

そ

ふ

Freq.FrequencyTop 100,000

Meanings

noun

great-grandfather

Refers to one's own great-grandfather or someone else's. The reading そうそふ is formal; ひいじじ and variants are colloquial.

私わたしの曽そう祖そ父ふは明めい治じ時じ代だいに生うまれました。
My great-grandfather was born in the Meiji era.
ひいじじの話はなしを聞きくのが好すきです。
I like hearing stories about my great-granddad.

See all 11 example sentences ›

Kanji

曽formerly, once, before
祖ancestor, pioneer, founder
父father
曾once, before, formerly

Related words

曾そう祖そ母ぼ
Great-grandmother; the female counterpart.
祖そ父ふ
Grandfather; one generation closer.

Word family

曽そう祖そ父ふ母ぼ
great-grandparents

Written forms

曽祖父
- そうそふ
  Standard modern kanji spelling.
- ひじじ
  gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikun
- ひいじじ
  gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikun
- ひおおじ
  gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikunrarely-used kana form
曾祖父Usage100%
out-dated kanji form
- そうそふ
  Contains outdated kanji 曾; 曽 is the modern form.
- ひいじじ
  gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikun
- ひじじ
  gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikun
- ひおおじ
  gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikunrarely-used kana form
ひいじじ
gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikun
Common kana spelling for the colloquial reading.
ひじじ
gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikun
Colloquial variant of ひいじじ.
ひおおじ
gikun (meaning-based reading) or jukujikunrarely-used kana form
Rarely used kana form; ひいじじ is more common.

Etymology

Compound of 曽 (sō, 'great-') + 祖父 (sofu, 'grandfather'). The colloquial readings ひいじじ, ひじじ, and ひおおじ are jukujikun, using native Japanese words for 'great-grandfather'.