適者生存 tekisha seizon Survival of the Fittest

Survival of the fittest, and the Japanese word says suited, not strongest: the one that fits its surroundings is the one that lives, and the surroundings decide. The English phrase is Herbert Spencer's, which Darwin borrowed and called more accurate than his own natural selection; the Japanese word was made in the Meiji years, tried three forms between 1881 and 1883, and kept the one written here, the fit one rather than the fit species or the fittest. It is not 弱肉強食, the strong devouring the weak. Whether you take it as the phrase Darwin made famous or as the Japanese word that says suited is yours.

適者生存 is composed of the words 適者 (read tekisha) meaning "the fit" and 生存 (read seizon) meaning "survive" or "exist".

The English phrase is Herbert Spencer's, coined in 1864, taken up by Darwin in 1868 and called more accurate than his own natural selection in the Origin of 1869; the Japanese word first appears in 1883, in the preface to Ishikawa Chiyomatsu's book of Morse's Tokyo lectures, after an 1881 form that made the fit a species and an 1882 one that made them the fittest.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 適者生存.

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