綿花

See also: 棉花

Japanese

Etymology 1

綿花 (menka): the cotton flower.

Kanji in this term
綿	花
めん Grade: 5	か Grade: 1
on’yomi

Likely a shift in spelling from synonymous and homophonous 棉(めん)花(か) (menka), from Middle Chinese 棉花 (MC mjien xwae, literally “cotton + flower”).

Alternative forms

• 棉花

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) め​んか [méꜜǹkà] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [mẽ̞ŋka̠]

Noun

綿(めん)花(か) • (menka) ^{←めんくわ (menkwa)?}

1. raw cotton, cotton on the bush, a cotton flower

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
綿	花
わた Grade: 5	はな > ばな Grade: 1
kun’yomi

Compound of 綿 (wata, “cotton”) +‎ 花 (hana, “flower”). The hana changes to bana as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) わたばな [wàtábáná] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [ɰᵝa̠ta̠ba̠na̠]

Noun

綿(わた)花(ばな) • (watabana) 

1. (archaic) an artificial flower made of cotton

   Traditionally worn by male dancers as a kind of 挿頭 (kazashi, “traditional decorative hairpin”) for the 男踏歌 (otoko tōka) dance, held on the 15th day after the Lunar New Year in ancient Japan until the late Heian period.