There’s a Japanese word that means ‘needle mouse’ when literally translated. What kind of animal do you think it is?
It is in fact a hedgehog. It is written 針鼠 and pronounced harinezumi: 針 (hari) means needle, pin, hook, stinger; thorn, hand (of clock), pointer or staple. 鼠 (nezumi, nezu, shi, sho) means rat, mouse or dark gray. Harinezumi can also be written 針ねずみ, 蝟 or ハリネズミ.
In Mandarin Chinese the character 蝟 (wèi) means hedgehog, and also vulgar, wanton, low, many, varied or porcupine. The simplified version is 猬. Another Chinese word for hedgehog is 刺猬 [刺蝟] (cìwei) – 刺 (cì) = stab, prick, irritate or prod.
The word 針鼠 is not used in Chinese, as far as I know, and appears to be a Japanese coinage.
I was inspired to write this post after reading about the needle mouse / hedgehog in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley, which I finished yesterday. It’s an interesting book that I enjoyed very much, and that includes references to Japanese language and culture, and elements of history, fantasy, sci-fi and magical realism, and also a clockwork octopus, and other clockwork creatures.
The Japanese for clockwork octopus is ぜんまい仕掛けの蛸 (zenmaijikake no tako) or 時計仕掛けの蛸 (tokeijikake no tako). In Chinese it’s 发条章鱼 [發條章魚] (fātiáo zhāngyú).
Sources: Jisho, MDBG Chinese dictionary
This is a tune I wrote called “The Clockwork Octopus” – the title came first, then I wrote the tune:
Taking Japanese words apart is always fascinating! 鼠 nezumi (mouse, rat) further derives from elements denoting “one that lives among the roots (i.e. in hidden-away places)”. The (dark) grey colour referred to in Japanese as 鼠色 nezumi iro is thus the “mouse-hue”.