通い
Meanings
coming and going; back-and-forth passage; service running between places
Refers to movement back and forth between two places, including a route or vehicle regularly plying between them. Commonly seen in compounds such as 通い船.
See also: 通う
A ferry boat runs every day between the island and the mainland.
commuting; regular attendance; frequenting
Used for regularly going to work, school, lessons, a hospital, a gym, a shop, and similar places. It often works suffix-like after a place or means, as in 電車通い or ジム通い.
See also: 通う
Commuting by train for an hour each way is more tiring than I expected.
Recently I started going to the gym regularly after work.
Abbreviation of 通い帳. This use is limited and old-fashioned or contextual; for a modern bank passbook, 通帳 is the usual word.
See also: 通い帳
In older materials, 通い is sometimes used as an abbreviation of 通い帳, a passbook or account book.
Usage patterns
- 〈場所〉通いをするto make regular visits to a place
My mother makes regular trips to the hospital.
- 通いで働くto work on a commuting (non-live-in) basis
He works commuting from home rather than living in.
- 通いの〈人〉a (worker) who commutes rather than living in
They employ a housekeeper who comes in daily rather than living in.