新しい

Etymology
→ →  →

In, the original term was , composed of older + adjective-forming suffix. This persisted until at least the mid-1200s, and indeed the adjective stem arata is both modern adjective and the root of verbs such as. See for further details of that etymology.

Starting from the 900s, the aratashi reading began shifting to atarashi. This metathesis may have been due to conflation with. The aratashi reading then became more and more uncommon in, and the “new, modern, fresh” sense became the main use, superseding the largely homophonous and pushing it out of common usage.

The modern form is

Displaced 🇨🇬. This is reflected in the modern language as prefixing stem, which is no longer productive.

Adjective

 * 1) new, novel
 * 2) latest, recent
 * 3) modern
 * 4) fresh
 * 1) fresh