Jisho

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Eb2140e8c5e568daf973cd0a226790c3
2 Replies ・ Started by Lupine13 at 2015-07-22 21:05:53 UTC ・ Last reply by Lupine13 at 2015-07-22 22:56:27 UTC
This is a discussion about 神のみぞ知る

みぞ or みぞ知る?

Having trouble finding a good definition of mizoshiru and why it's used in the context of "- only knows." Is mizoshiru one word?

Bfa3349f5aab329c2df738de946d7c8c
Hakaku at 2015-07-22 22:52:13 UTC

It's not みぞ, but rather のみ "only" + ぞ, a particle that adds focus. So the decomposition of 神のみぞ知るセカイ, officially translated in English as "The World God Only Knows", would be:

  • 神 "god"
  • のみ "only"
  • ぞ particle that adds focus or emphasis (mostly literary in this usage)
  • 知る "to know"
  • セカイ (世界) "the world"

As a side note, historically, のみ came from the particle の + the noun 身 "self; body".

Eb2140e8c5e568daf973cd0a226790c3
Lupine13 at 2015-07-22 22:56:27 UTC

Thank you so much!

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