佐官

Japanese

Kanji in this term
佐	官
さ Grade: 4	かん Grade: 4
on'yomi

Etymology

佐 (“assistant”) +‎ 官 (“official; mandarin; courtier”). 佐 likely comes from the old kanji spellings used in titles in the military or guard under the 律令 (Ritsuryō) system, particularly the second-in-command of the 兵衛府 (Hyōefu) or the 衛門府 (Emonfu), although it was read as すけ (suke) instead, and it was merely a specialized spelling of 次官 (suke). 佐官 was not used under the 律令 (Ritsuryō) system, but it was the etymological source of the reading of the Ritsuryō rank of 主典 (sakan, “fourth-in-command”). North Korea and Vietnam use the same element, 佐, as in North Korean 좌 (chwa) and Vietnamese tá, for their senior/field ranks, while both Chinas use 校 and South Korea uses 령 (ryeong, from 領) instead. North Korea and Vietnam coined an additional rank, 상좌 (sangjwa)/thượng tá (“army colonel; naval captain”, in Han characters, 上佐), as an equivalent to Japanese 大佐 (taisa), while shifting their own cognates of 大佐 one rank higher, as in 대좌 (daejwa)/đại tá (“army senior colonel; naval senior captain”).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) さかん [sáꜜkàǹ] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [sa̠kã̠ɴ]

• Homophones: 左官, 茶館

Noun

佐(さ)官(かん) • (sakan) ^{←さくわん (sakwan)?}

1. (military) a field officer

   Hypernym: 士官

   Hyponyms: 海佐, 空佐, 少佐, 大佐, 中佐, 陸佐

   Coordinate terms: 尉官, 将官