Ajisai

/adisawi/ → /ad͡ʑisai/ From Old Japanese. Recorded in the Man'yōshū of c. 759 CE with the phonetic man'yōgana spellings 味狭藍 (adisawi) and 安治佐為 (adisawi), and in the Wamyō Ruijushō dictionary of 938 CE with the phonetic spelling 阿豆佐為 (adusawi, atusawi). Ultimate derivation unknown. Some sources suggest that this comes from 集真藍 (adi sa-awi, literally “gathering + pure indigo”). However, this is problematic phonetically, as there is no evidence for any classical or ancient verb 集 (adu, modern azu) that would conjugate to adi (modern aji). The closest with this meaning would be 厚 (atsu), stem of the adjective 厚い (atsui, “thick; packed together”) and root of the classical verb 集む (atsumu, “to gather together”), modern 集める (atsumeru, transitive) and 集まる (atsumaru, intransitive), and this atu (modern atsu) never showed signs of voicing to adu (modern azu), let alone shifting the final vowel from -u to -i. This theory is also problematic semantically, as the hydrangea's color range never includes colors as dark as pure indigo. Alternatively, the initial adi may be from 味 (ancient adi, modern aji; literally “flavor”), also used as an adjective referring to something good, preferable, or favorable. The sawi may be from -s- as an ancient possessive infix (see also 春雨 (harusame, “spring rain”), 真っ青 (massao, “pure blue, really blue”), 荒稲 (arashine, “unhulled rice”)) and awi from 藍 (ancient awi, modern ai; “indigo”, also used in some contexts to simply mean “blue”). The spelling is borrowed from Chinese 紫陽花 /紫阳花 (zǐyánghuā), literally meaning “purple sun flower”, and is an example of jukujikun (熟(じゅく)字(じ)訓(くん)).