麒麟

Qilin was a propitious beast in ancient Chinese mythology, with the shape of a deer, tail of an ox, a single horn and scales all over its body. Old Chinese pronunciation for this word was *g(ɯ)-rin (Zhengzhang), and in pre-Qin times the beast was also referred to as

• 麟 (OC *rin),
• 麐 (OC *m·rin, *m·rins),
• 𪊓, or
• 蔽 (OC *peds),

the last two having been attested in the oracle bone script already. There is much debate as to what animal the qilin beast was; some maintain that the qilin was a beast only found in mythology, even though it may have been based on some animal in pre-historic times, and some argue that the qilin was in reality the river deer, the ox or cow, or the Indian rhinoceros (Wang, 2009).

During the Song–Ming Dynasties, the giraffe was introduced to China, either by envoys from other Asian or African countries, or through Zheng He who commanded multiple expeditionary voyages to Asia and Africa (Zhang, 2007). Besides using the transcription 祖剌法 (zǔlàfǎ) (from Arabic زُرَافَة‎ (zurāfa, “giraffe”)) to name the animal, the Chinese also referred to it as qilin, believing it was the prototype of the mythological beast qilin. Such association may be due to the phonological similarity of the words for “giraffe” in North African languages, to the pronunciation of 麒麟 at the time (i.e. a phono-semantic matching) (Zhang, 2007). Compare:

Somali geri (“giraffe”), Sango kôlo, Amharic ቀጭኔ (ḳäč̣ne), Kazakh керік (kerık), Mursi kirin[1] and Arabic زَرَافَة‎ (zarāfa), زُرَافَة‎ (zurāfa) (whence English giraffe).

The “giraffe” sense of 麒麟 is obsolete in most varieties of modern Chinese, but is preserved in the Sinoxenic loanwords in Japanese (Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value)) and Korean (기린). In modern Vietnamese (kì lân), this word refers to the beast qilin, as well as the western mythological beast unicorn.

Janhunen (2011) tentatively compares 麒麟 (OC *ɡɯ rin) to a Northeast Asian etymon *kalimV, which denotes either "whale" or "mammoth"; however, he cautiously remarks that "[t]he formal and semantic similarity between *kilin < *gilin ~ *gïlin 'unicorn' and *kalimV 'whale' (but also Samoyedic *kalay- 'mammoth') is sufficient to support, though perhaps not confirm, the hypothesis of an etymological connection". He also notes a possible connection between Old Chinese and Mongolian (*)kers ~ (*)keris ~ (*)kiris "rhinoceros" (> Khalkha Mongolian хирс (xirs)).

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麒麟

1. (Chinese mythology) qilin (propitious mythological beast) (Classifier: 隻／只 m c mn)

   • 豈惟民哉？麒麟之於走獸，鳳凰之於飛鳥，太山之於丘垤，河海之於行潦，類也。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     岂惟民哉？麒麟之于走兽，凤凰之于飞鸟，太山之于丘垤，河海之于行潦，类也。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Mencius, c. 4^th century BCE

     Qǐ wéi mín zāi? Qílín zhī yú zǒushòu, fènghuáng zhī yú fēiniǎo, Tàishān zhī yú qiūdié, hé hǎi zhī yú xíngliáo, lèi yě. [Pinyin]

     Is it only among men that it is so? There is the Qilin among quadrupeds, the Fenghuang (phoenix) among birds, the Tai mountain among mounds and ant-hills, and rivers and seas among rain-pools. Though different in degree, they are the same in kind.

2. (figurative, literary) outstanding person; man of ability
3. (literary or Taiwanese Hokkien) giraffe (ruminant of the genus Giraffa) (Classifier: 隻／只 mn)

   • 麒麟前二足高九尺餘，後兩足約高六尺，頭抬頸長一丈六尺。首昂後低，人莫能騎。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     麒麟前二足高九尺余，后两足约高六尺，头抬颈长一丈六尺。首昂后低，人莫能骑。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 1451, Ma Huan, 瀛涯勝覽

     Qílín qián èr zú gāo jiǔ chǐ yú, hòu liǎng zú yuē gāo liù chǐ, tóu tái jǐng cháng yī zhàng liù chǐ. Shǒu áng hòu dī, rén mò néng qí. [Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

• (outstanding person):

• (giraffe):

Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value)

Others:

• → Thai: กิเลน (gì-leen)
• → Zhuang: geizlaenz, gizlinz

麒麟

1. (～區) Qilin District (district in Qujing, Yunnan province, China)
2. (～鎮) Qilin (a town in Zongyang, Tongling, Anhui, China)

From Old Japanese, in turn from Middle Chinese 麒麟 (MC gi lin). First cited in Japanese to the Nihon Shoki of 720.[1]

The giraffe sense was probably based on a superficial resemblance between certain depictions of the mythical beast and the patterning and body shape of the real animal: a tailed, hoofed, and horned quadruped with a vaguely leopard-like spot pattern. First cited in Japanese to a text from 1798.[1]

• (Tokyo) きりん [kìríń] (Heiban – [0])[2][3][4]
• IPA^(key): [kʲiɾʲĩɴ]

麒(き)麟(りん) • (kirin) 

1. [from 720] Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value) (mythology, Chinese mythology) a qilin
   • 2010 May 23, Gosho Aoyama, “ＦＩＬＥ(ファイル).５(ご)　[青](せい)[龍](りゅう)”, in 名(めい)探(たん)偵(てい)コナン, volume 68 (fiction), Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN:

     それは動(どう)物(ぶつ)のキリン！問(もん)題(だい)の麒(き)麟(りん)は…全(ぜん)身(しん)が黄(き)色(いろ)い鱗(うろこ)で覆(おお)われていて、姿(すがた)は鹿(しか)、牛(うし)の尾(お)と馬(うま)の蹄(ひづめ)を持(も)ち、龍(りゅう)に似(に)た頭(あたま)から１(いっ)本(ぽん)角(つの)が生(は)えてる…中(ちゅう)国(ごく)の伝(でん)説(せつ)上(じょう)の神(しん)獣(じゅう)だよ！

     Sore wa dōbutsu no kirin! Mondai no kirin wa… Zenshin ga kiiroi uroko de ōwarete ite, sugata wa shika, ushi no o to uma no hizume o mochi, ryū ni nita atama kara ippon tsuno ga haete ru… Chūgoku no densetsu jō no shinjū da yo!

     That’s giraffe(kirin) the animal! The qilin(kirin) we’re talking about… has a deer-like body covered in golden scales, with a cow’s tail and a horse’s hooves, and with a single horn growing from its dragonish head… It’s a mythical beast from Chinese legends!

2. [date unknown] Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value) (shogi) the kirin, a piece in chūshōgi and larger shogi variants
3. [from 1798] Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value) a giraffe (mammal)

   Synonym: ジラフ (jirafu)

   • 2010 May 23, Gosho Aoyama, “ＦＩＬＥ(ファイル).５(ご)　[青](せい)[龍](りゅう)”, in 名(めい)探(たん)偵(てい)コナン, volume 68 (fiction), Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN:

     それは動(どう)物(ぶつ)のキリン！問(もん)題(だい)の麒(き)麟(りん)は…全(ぜん)身(しん)が黄(き)色(いろ)い鱗(うろこ)で覆(おお)われていて、姿(すがた)は鹿(しか)、牛(うし)の尾(お)と馬(うま)の蹄(ひづめ)を持(も)ち、龍(りゅう)に似(に)た頭(あたま)から１(いっ)本(ぽん)角(つの)が生(は)えてる…中(ちゅう)国(ごく)の伝(でん)説(せつ)上(じょう)の神(しん)獣(じゅう)だよ！

     Sore wa dōbutsu no kirin! Mondai no kirin wa… Zenshin ga kiiroi uroko de ōwarete ite, sugata wa shika, ushi no o to uma no hizume o mochi, ryū ni nita atama kara ippon tsuno ga haete ru… Chūgoku no densetsu jō no shinjū da yo!

     That’s giraffe(kirin) the animal! The qilin(kirin) we’re talking about… has a deer-like body covered in golden scales, with a cow’s tail and a horse’s hooves, and with a single horn growing from its dragonish head… It’s a mythical beast from Chinese legends!

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as キリン.

• 麒麟 (mythology) on the Japanese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^ja
• Qilin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• キリン (giraffe) on the Japanese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^ja
• Giraffe on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

麒麟 • (girin or McCune-Reischauer: kirin or Yale: kilin) (hangeul 기린)

1. Hanja form^? of 기린 (“giraffe; qilin”).

麒麟

1. chữ Hán form of kì lân (“qilin”).