港

Meaning: “hand's heart/center”

From Old Japanese. Attested in the Nihon Shoki of 720. Reconstructed as deriving from Proto-Japonic *minato. The traditional etymology that Japanese sources trace back to is a compound of 水 (mi-, “water”) + な (na, assimilated apophonic form of の (no, “genitive case marker”)) + 門 (to, “gate”). * However, this does not correlate cleanly with the etymology of 水 (mizu, “water”), reconstructed as Proto-Japonic *mentu (“water”). Then again, there are numerous attested words where 水 (mi) is used as the first and last element in compounds, suggesting either that the derivation of 水 (mizu) might differ. Vovin, on the other hand suggests that the initial mi- was 御 (mi-, “honorific prefix”), while -na- meant "water", possibly from Proto-Tai *C̬.namꟲ (“water”). Compare 涙 (namida, “tears”), 菜葱, 水葱 (nagi, “Monochoria vaginalis”), 漬く (nazuku, “soak in water”, obsolete). * However, this may present semantic difficulties, as any native formation like namida that proposes "water" for the initial nam and "eye" for a following component reverses the usual word-formation pattern for Japanese, where the main or head noun comes last. In addition, the na element appears in other words with no relation to "water", as an assimilated apophonic form of genitive particle の (no), seen in terms such as 掌 (tanagokoro, “palm of the hand”, literally “hand's heart/center”), 眼間 (manakai, “where the lines of sight of the eyes converge”, literally “eyes' exchanging/crossing”).