霜柱

Japanese

Kanji in this term
霜	柱
しも Grade: S	はしら > ばしら Grade: 3
kun'yomi

Ice needles

Etymology

Literally, “frost pillar”, 霜(しも) (shimo, “frost”) + 柱(はしら) (hashira, “pillar”). The hashira changes to bashira as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) しもばしら [shìmóbáꜜshìrà] (Nakadaka – [3])
• IPA^(key): [ɕimo̞ba̠ɕiɾa̠]

Noun

霜(しも)柱(ばしら) or 霜柱(シモバシラ) • (shimobashira) 

1. ice needle
2. Collinsonia japonica

Usage notes

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

References

• “霜柱”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[1] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026