鶴

Meaning: “a crane”

Given a crane's long neck and how the bird hunts, possibly related to 蔓(つる) (tsuru, “vine”); 弦(つる) (tsuru, “bowstring; musical instrument string”); 釣(つ)る, 吊(つ)る (tsuru, “to hang down; to string up; to fish”). Given how cranes flock together, possibly related also to 連(つ)る (tsuru), classical form of modern verb 連(つ)れる (tsureru, “to accompany”). That said, 連(つ)る also appears to ultimately derive from 蔓(つる) (tsuru, “vine”). Vovin (2008) considers it possibly related to an ancestor of Korean 두루미 (durumi, “crane”), with a root-final -m vanishing later, leaving only a Kansai accent pattern behind. May ultimately be a regional Wanderwort. Compare also Proto-Finno-Ugric *tërka (“crane”), and Proto-Turkic *turńa (“crane”) (whence Turkish turna), Mongolian тогоруу (togoruu, “crane”). The reading tsuru is first seen used to mean “a crane” from the late Heian period. Prior to that time, the only reading used for the bird was tazu. However, the kanji 鶴 was used in the Man'yōshū (759 CE) as a 借(しゃっ)訓(くん) (shakkun) reading for つる (turu → tsuru), the 連(れん)体(たい)形(けい) (rentaikei, “attributive form”) of つ (tu → tsu, auxiliary verb of affirmation, certainty, or completion), suggesting that tsuru may have already existed as an everyday term meaning “a crane”.