御

Related characters

 * (This character is to  御  in mainland China)

Glyph origin
.

Etymology 1
. compared 御 to 🇨🇬 and.

Definitions

 * 1)  royal, imperial
 * 2) to manage; to govern; to control
 * 3) to drive a chariot or carriage; to ride (on an animal or a vehicle drawn by animals)
 * 4) driver of a carriage
 * 1) to drive a chariot or carriage; to ride (on an animal or a vehicle drawn by animals)
 * 2) driver of a carriage
 * 1) driver of a carriage
 * 1) driver of a carriage

Definitions

 * 1)  to meet, greet and welcome (someone)

Kanji

 * , your
 * 1) royal, imperial, godly
 * 2) control
 * 3) govern
 * 4) protect

Readings
As variant kanji of :

Etymology 1
→

Shift from on- below.

Already apparent since the 14th century.

Prefix

 * 1) indicates that the [word] is honorific; often used to indicate that the [word] belongs or is related to the listener

Usage notes
Not to be confused with, which is a less-commonly used prefix.

Almost exclusively written in hiragana, to disambiguate with the heteronyms below.

Prefixed to the native Japanese words, as in (words read with ). However, there are numerous exceptions such as and. In old use, prefixed short women's names regardless of the type of reading, for example, , , , etc. For , this prefix is seldom used, but somewhat preferred in the jargon of some kinds of industry, as in.

Usage varies between speakers, situations, and gender – more polite speech, especially by women, features more use of this prefix, while blunt speech, especially by men, uses it less or not at all (words where the prefix has become mandatory are replaced by blunter terms that do not have the prefix). In rare cases a prefixed term has become impolite, as in.

Etymology 2
→ →  →

- shift from ōn- below.

Prefix

 * 1) indicates that the [word] is honorific; often used to indicate that the [word] belongs or is related to the listener

Etymology 3
→ * *  →  →  →

First attested in the  (938 ), as man'yōgana form within.

Shift from.

Both ōmu- and ōn- readings likely existed in free variation until the development of the grapheme.

Prefix

 * 1)  indicates that the [word] is honorific; often used to indicate that the [word] belongs or is related to the listener

Etymology 4
→ * →

From.

Cognate with, as this prefix was originally used to refer to gods and other spiritually important things.

Prefix

 * 1)  added to gods and other spiritually important things
 * 2)  added to nouns to indicate godlike respect
 * 3)  added to placenames to emphasize beauty

Usage notes
Primarily for the religious words, pertaining to gods or the emperor, as in. However, in this context it is often replaced by ("god", also pronounced mi-), and then a further  may be added, as in. The mi- prefix also became merged into other kanji, as in.

Etymology 5
From.

The  reading, so likely the initial borrowing.

Prefix

 * 1) indicates that the [word] is honorific; often used to indicate that the [word] belongs or is related to the listener

Usage notes
Prefixed to the Sino-Japanese words, as in.

While in general this prefix is optional, in many cases it is so commonly used that the base word can no longer be used in isolation, as in – the form × is not used alone, though it can be used as parts of compounds (such as, suihan, “rice cooking”), and the character can be read in isolation as meshi.

It may also be used with modern foreign borrowings.

also appears with a limited number of native words such as and.

Etymology 6
Short form of.

Suffix

 * 1)  indicates that the [word] is familiar to the speaker and slightly honorific

Noun

 * 1)  a lady
 * suffixed to the given name, via genitive particle :
 * 1)  form of address to a woman or a court lady: my Lady
 * used in the plural form
 * used in the plural form

Etymology 7
From.

The  reading, so likely a later borrowing.

Noun

 * 1) equestrianism, horseriding
 * 2) a coachman
 * 3)  serving nearby

Prefix

 * 1) prefixed to make an honorific kanji compound, especially used to indicate that the [word] belongs or is related to the emperor and/or the equivalents

Suffix

 * 1) suffixed to make an honorific kanji compound which means the action belongs or is related to the emperor and/or the equivalents

Affix

 * 1) control
 * 2) govern, rule
 * 3) servant
 * : defend, protect

Etymology
Cognate with, as this prefix was originally used to refer to gods and other spiritually important things.

Prefix

 * 1)   added to gods and other spiritually important things
 * 2)  added to nouns to indicate godlike respect
 * 3)  added to placenames to emphasize beauty