Editing Mount Fuji (section)

== Etymology ==
{{Further|wikt:富士#Etymology 3}}
The current ''[[kanji]]'' for Mount Fuji, {{lang|ja|富}} and {{lang|ja|士}}, mean "wealth" or "abundant" and "man of status" respectively. However, the origins of this spelling and the name ''Fuji'' continue to be debated.

A text of the 9th century, ''[[The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter|Tale of the Bamboo Cutter]]'', says that the name came from {{Nihongo|"immortal"|不死|fushi, fuji}} and also from the image of {{Nihongo|abundant|富|fu}} {{Nihongo|soldiers|士|shi, ji}}{{efn|Although the word [[Radical 33|士]] [[wikt:士#Japanese|can mean]] a {{Nihongo|soldier|兵士|heishi, heiji}}, or a {{Nihongo|samurai|武士|bushi}}, its original meaning is ''a man with a certain status''.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}}} ascending the slopes of the mountain.<ref>{{cite book|script-title=ja:竹取物語 かぐや姫のおひたち|title=Taketorimonogatari kaguyahime no o hi-tachi|trans-title=The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter: Kaguyahime's Ohitachi|publisher=Iwanami shoten|date=1929|url=https://jti.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/taketori/AnoTake.html|location=Tokyo|via=Japanese Text Initiative}}{{wikibooks inline|ja:竹取物語 かぐや姫のおひたち}}</ref> An early [[folk etymology]] claims that ''Fuji'' came from {{lang|ja|不二}} (''not'' + ''two''), meaning ''without equal'' or ''nonpareil''. Another claims that it came from {{lang|ja|不盡}} (''not'' + ''to exhaust''), meaning ''never-ending''.

[[Hirata Atsutane]], a Japanese classical scholar in the [[Edo period]], speculated that the name is from a word meaning "a mountain standing up shapely as an {{Nihongo|ear|穗|ho}} of a rice plant". British missionary [[John Batchelor (missionary)|John Batchelor]] (1855–1944) argued that the name is from the [[Ainu language|Ainu]] word for "fire" (''fuchi'') of the fire deity [[Kamuy-huci|Kamui Fuchi]], which was denied by a Japanese linguist [[Kyōsuke Kindaichi]] on the grounds of phonetic development ([[sound change]]). It is also pointed out that ''huchi'' means an "old woman" and ''ape'' is the word for "fire", ''ape huchi kamuy'' being the fire deity. Research on the distribution of place names that include ''fuji'' also suggests the origin of the word ''fuji'' is in the [[Yamato people|Yamato]] language rather than Ainu. Japanese [[Toponymy|toponymist]] Kanji Kagami argued that the name has the same root as {{Nihongo|[[wisteria]]|藤|fuji}} and {{Nihongo|rainbow|虹|niji|but with an alternative reading, ''fuji''}}, and came from its "long well-shaped slope".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.city.fujinomiya.shizuoka.jp/e-museum/fujiyama/furufuji4.htm |script-title=ja:富士山の名前の由来|title=Fujisan no namaenoyurai|trans-title=Origin of the name Mt. Fuji|language=ja|date=May 31, 2008 |access-date=December 23, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531001107/http://www.city.fujinomiya.shizuoka.jp/e-museum/fujiyama/furufuji4.htm |archive-date=May 31, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://tisen.jp/tisenwiki/index.php?%C9%D9%BB%CE%BB%B3 |script-title=ja:富士山|title=Fujisan|trans-title=Mt. Fuji|language=ja|website=Chisen Wiki|date=October 25, 2006 |access-date=December 23, 2010 |archive-date=December 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091218185331/http://tisen.jp/tisenwiki/index.php?%C9%D9%BB%CE%BB%B3 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~genn/sub5.html |script-title=ja:地名・富士山の意味|title=Chimei Fujisan no imi|trans-title=Meaning of place name Mt. Fuji|language=ja|date=June 3, 2008 |access-date=December 23, 2010 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20080603055732/http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~genn/sub5.html |archive-date=June 3, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~hi5k-stu/aynu/huji.htm |script-title=ja:富士山アイヌ語語源説について|title=Fujisan ainukotoba gogen-setsu ni tsuite|trans-title=About the etymology of the Ainu language of Mt. Fuji|language=ja|publisher=Asahi-net.or.jp |access-date=December 23, 2010 |archive-date=July 22, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722120652/http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~hi5k-stu/aynu/huji.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Aerial panorama of Mount Fuji from Lake Saiko. June 2023.jpg|thumb|Aerial panorama of Mount Fuji from Lake Saiko, June 2023]]
[[File:Aerial panorama of Mount Fuji with Saiko Iyashi-no-Sato Nenba in the foreground. June 2023.jpg|thumb|Aerial panorama of Mount Fuji with Saiko Iyashi-no-Sato Nenba in the foreground, June 2023]]
Modern linguist [[Alexander Vovin]] proposes an alternative hypothesis based on Old Japanese reading {{IPA|*/puⁿzi/}}: the word may have been borrowed from [[Eastern Old Japanese]] {{IPA|*/pu nusi/}} 火主, meaning "fire master".<ref>{{cite book |chapter=On the Etymology of the Name of Mt. Fuji |title=Studies in Japanese and Korean Historical and Theoretical Linguistics and Beyond|last=Vovin|first=Alexander|author-link=Alexander Vovin|editor-last1=Vovin|editor-first1=Alexander|editor-last2=McClure|editor-first2=William|doi=10.1163/9789004351134_010 |chapter-url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789004351134/B9789004351134_010.xml |series=Languages of Asia |volume=16 |date=2017-01-01 |publisher=Brill |pages=80–89 |isbn=9789004351134 |access-date=November 15, 2023}}</ref>

=== Variations ===
In English, the mountain is known as Mount Fuji. Some sources refer to it as "Fuji-san", "Fujiyama" or, redundantly, "Mt. Fujiyama". Japanese speakers refer to the mountain as "Fuji-san". This "san" is not the [[-san|honorific suffix]] used with people's names, such as Watanabe-san, but the [[On reading|Sino-Japanese reading]] of the character {{nihongo||山|yama|"mountain"}} used in [[Sino-Japanese vocabulary|Sino-Japanese]] compounds. In [[Nihon-shiki romanization|Nihon-shiki]] and [[Kunrei-shiki romanization]], the name is transliterated as ''Huzi''.

Other Japanese names which have become obsolete or poetic include {{nihongo||ふじの山|Fuji-no-Yama|"the Mountain of Fuji"}}, {{nihongo||ふじの高嶺|Fuji-no-Takane|"the High Peak of Fuji"}}, {{nihongo||芙蓉峰|Fuyō-hō|"the Lotus Peak"}}, and {{nihongo||富岳／富嶽|Fugaku}}, created by combining the first character of {{lang|ja|富士}}, ''Fuji'', and {{lang|ja|岳}}, ''mountain''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E3%83%95%E3%82%B8%E3%82%B5%E3%83%B3&enc=UTF-8&stype=0&dtype=0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722101305/http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E3%83%95%E3%82%B8%E3%82%B5%E3%83%B3&enc=UTF-8&stype=0&dtype=0 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-07-22 |title=Fuji-san |publisher=Daijisen |language=ja}}</ref>