頑張って ganbatte Go For It
Abstract
頑張って, ganbatte, is the て-form of 頑張る used as a request, a cheer in general use [1]. The verb is written in borrowed characters. The 日本国語大辞典 takes it to come from 眼張る, to keep an eye on, and records the view that it comes from 我張る or 我に張る; the デジタル大辞泉 gives が（我）には（張）る first and 眼張る as an alternative [2][3]. The 日国's examples run from 1745 to 1947, through marking and watching, holding one's place, enduring and insisting; in the National Diet Library's full-text index, its dated rows read oldest first, the form 頑張つて is first found at the page, by its colophon date, in a part of a novel whose copyright license is dated 22 August 1885, for a man holding out [4], and a war report of 1905 uses it for holding on [5]; the 日国's first example of that sense is a children's song of 1944 [2].
Overview
The sense. Hold on; keep going: a cheer, a request to endure. The デジタル大辞泉's first sense of 頑張る is 困難にめげないで我慢してやり抜く, to bear up against difficulty and see it through [3]; Weblio's 実用日本語表現辞典 calls 頑張って, with the sentence-final て (終助詞), 応援の掛け声として一般的に用いられる言葉, a word in general use as a cheer [1].
The words. 頑張って ganbatte is the て-form of 頑張る: with the linking て (接続助詞) it qualifies the act, and with the sentence-final て (終助詞) it urges the hearer on, and Weblio sets the imperative 頑張れ beside it [1]. 頑張る is written with borrowed characters, 当て字 [3]. The 日国 enters the verb under 眼張る (written 眼張 or 頑張), takes it to come from 眼張る (「眼張る」から出た語と考えられる), and notes the view that 頑張る comes from 我張る or 我に張る. Its senses, in order: ① to mark and keep in mind, to aim at (a puppet play of 1745, 声を眼ばって置いて下んせ; a kabuki of 1809, the first example written 頑張, 頑張って置かっしゃったか); ② to open the eyes wide and stare; ③ to keep watch (1780); ④ to hold one's place and not move (a rakugo of 1893); ⑤ 困難に屈せず、努力しつづける, to keep striving, undefeated by difficulty (the children's song お山の杉の子, 1944); ⑥ to insist on one's own view (太宰治, 1947) [2]. The デジタル大辞泉 gives the derivation the other way round, 「が（我）には（張）る」の音変化、また「眼張る」の意からとも, and three senses: to bear up and see it through, to hold to one's own will, to occupy a place and not move [3].
The text in English. The bilingual dictionaries read here give persist and hold out. Hepburn's Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionary, in its third edition of 1886, has no entry for the verb where gambaru or gwambaru would stand and gives okotarazu ni nasu for persist [6]; Brinkley's Japanese-English dictionary of 1896 has none where either would stand [7]. Saitō Hidesaburō's English-Japanese dictionary (1915; read in a copy the archive dates 1918) gives 強情張る、頑張る for persist (in an opinion, in doing something, against one's remonstrance) [8]. Satow and Ishibashi's English-Japanese dictionary of the spoken language gives gōjō (強情) wo haru as its one rendering of persist used absolutely, and no gambaru under persist or insist, in its third edition of 1904; its fourth, of 1919, adds gambaru to both, under insist for acting defiantly, beside osu and oshite s [9]. Kenkyūsha's Japanese-English dictionary of 1942: persist in; insist on; hold out; stand out (firm); be inflexible, and, in a contest, 頑張れ! Hold out! [10]. Its edition of 1974 adds, among other renderings, bear up (well) and gives 頑張れ! as Hold out! / Stick to it! / Show your nerve! [11]. Neither Kenkyūsha gives go for it or do your best. The Kodansha encyclopedia of Japan, in 1993, glosses gambaru to persist, to hang on, to do one's best, and says the word is used among members of a group to encourage each other, often in the imperative form gambare [12]. Weblio's English expression dictionary renders go for it as, among others, 頑張ろう, 頑張ります and 頑張ってくださいね [13]. In the Google Books ngram go for it stays between about 0.7 and 1.1 times its 1970s level from the 1900s through the 1970s; taken by decade, it is nearly three times as frequent in the 1980s as in the 1970s, and about sixteen times in the 2010s [14].
The historical record
1745 and 1809. The verb in the dictionary before Meiji. The 日国's first example of the verb is a puppet play of 1745, 目が見えずば声を眼ばって置いて下んせ, if you cannot see, mark my voice, and its first written 頑張 is a kabuki of 1809, 頑張って置かっしゃったか, have you marked it?, both in the marking sense [2]. These are the dictionary's citations; the plays were not read here.
1885 to 1907. 頑張つて in print, from holding out to holding on. In the Diet Library's index, its dated rows read oldest first, the form is first found at the page in the sixth part of 坪内逍遥's novel of student life, 当世書生気質, which the index dates to 1885–1886 and whose colophon gives 22 August 1885 as the date of its copyright license (版權免許), leaving the day of issue blank (ahead of it in the index's list stand undated rows, not read at the leaf, the novel's own one-volume edition of 1886, and an 1870 and an 1886 row read at the leaf as not the word): in a dispute over ten yen, 先方も頑張ツてきかない, the other side holds out and will not listen, the insisting sense [4]. In February 1886 a storyteller's tale, written down by 若林玵蔵 and published by the 速記法研究会, has a man say 人が來るといけないから貴君そこに頑張て居てお呉んなさい, someone may come, so please stand watch there [15]. By 1905 a war report has it for holding on: a writer says 實は戰地で療養して原職に復する決心で頻りに頑張つて見たけれど, I had meant to recover in the field and go back to my post, and kept trying to hold out, but the army surgeon wanted me sent to the rear (軍醫が後送を希望する) [5]. In 1906 漱石's cat watches its master 世の中の奴が神經病だと頑張つて居る, insisting that it is the rest of the world that is neurotic [16]. In 1907 黙雷's Zen talks say that even if all nine sects license wives and meat, 衲の宗派だけは確かに動かぬ、衲は一人でも頑張つて一陽來復の時節を待つのだ, my school alone will not move; even if alone, I will hold out and wait for the year to turn [17]. The 日本国語大辞典 first cites the enduring sense from a children's song of 1944 [2].
A reading
A cheer, not a text: its history is the verb's, from the eye that marks to the will that holds on. In print, as the index finds it, it holds out in 1885, keeps watch in 1886, holds on in a war report of 1905, and insists again in 1906. The Kodansha encyclopedia tells the word's history as a turn: probably from ga o haru, to be self-willed, negative at first, for asserting oneself against the group, and a positive word since the 1930s [12]. The index has it before the 1930s: holding on in a war report of 1905, and holding out as a resolve a Zen master speaks of himself in 1907 [5][17]. The 大辞泉 now puts endurance first [3], and the cheer, ending a sentence, asks it of someone else [1]. On a wall it is the word a dojo says, and 黙雷's even if alone, I will hold out and wait for the year to turn, said of holding out against wives and meat even if every other sect allowed them, is the sense at its most resolute.
Notes
頑張って is the て-form used as a request; the imperative is 頑張れ [1]. The 1885 and 1886 printings write 頑張ツて and 頑張て, glossed がんば and ぐわんばつ [4][15].
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
References
- 「頑張って」, 実用日本語表現辞典, at Weblio. https://www.weblio.jp/content/頑張って
- 「眼張る」, 精選版日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/眼張る-471274
- 「頑張る」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/頑張る-471275
- 坪内逍遥 (春のやおぼろ), 当世書生気質 第6号, 晩青堂, 1885 (copyright license 22 August 1885; colophon, scan 2), scan 6; the same sentence in the one-volume edition, 1886, scan 74. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/887431/1/6 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/887445/1/74
- 日露戦争実記 (67), 博文館, 1905 (the item record gives 1905-04 and, in a further date field, 20 January 1905; the index's text layer; open at the Diet Library only), the same passage in 宮部力次, 日露戦史大全 下巻, 博信館, 1905–1906 (the index's text layer; open in Japan only). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1592454 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2391119
- J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, third edition, Z. P. Maruya, Tokyo, 1886, read in a printing of 1888, p. 106, where gambaru would stand (GAMASHII, GAMBUTSU), p. 118, where gwambaru would stand (GWA-KŌ, GWAN), and p. 893, s.v. persist. https://archive.org/details/japaneseenglishe00hepbuoft/page/n147/mode/1up · https://archive.org/details/japaneseenglishe00hepbuoft/page/n934/mode/1up · https://archive.org/details/japaneseenglishe00hepbuoft/page/n159/mode/1up
- F. Brinkley, Nanjō Bunyū and others, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, Sanseidō, Tokyo, 1896, p. 231, where gambaru would stand (Gambako, Gambokugyo), and p. 264, where gwambaru would stand (Gwakwan, Gwambutsu). https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288/page/n265/mode/1up · https://archive.org/details/cu31924082117288/page/n295/mode/1up
- Saitō Hidesaburō, Saito's Idiomological English-Japanese Dictionary (熟語本位英和中辞典), S.E.G. Publishing Department, Tokyo, 1915, p. 961, s.v. persist; read at the page image of an Internet Archive copy the archive dates 1918, the same page and entry as the text layer of a copy of 1915 (Harvard, digitized by HathiTrust). https://archive.org/details/saitosidiomologi008800_0/page/n978/mode/1up
- Ernest Mason Satow and Ishibashi Masakata, An English-Japanese Dictionary of the Spoken Language, third edition, revised and enlarged by E. M. Hobart-Hampden and H. G. Parlett, Kelly & Walsh, Yokohama, 1904, p. 451, s.v. insist, and p. 627, s.v. persist; fourth edition, by the same revisers, Sanseidō, Tokyo, 1919, p. 704, s.v. insist, and p. 979, s.v. persist. https://archive.org/details/englishjapanesed00satouoft/page/n642/mode/1up · https://archive.org/details/englishjapanesed0000sato/page/n998/mode/1up
- Takenobu Yoshitarō, general editor, Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, American edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1942, p. 352, s.v. gambaru.
- Koh Masuda, editor, Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, fourth edition, Kenkyusha, Tokyo, 1974, p. 314, s.v. ganbaru.
- Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, first edition, Kodansha, Tokyo, 1993, pp. 439–440, s.v. gambaru.
- "go for it", Weblio 英和辞典・和英辞典 (Weblio英語表現辞典). https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/go+for+it
- Google Books Ngram Viewer, English 2019, 1800–2019, "go for it". https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=go+for+it&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019
- 松林伯圓 講述, 若林玵蔵 筆記, 安政三組盃 第10編, 速記法研究会, February 1886, scan 11 (colophon, scan 2). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/889453/1/11
- 夏目漱石, 吾輩ハ猫デアル 中, 大倉書店, 1906, scan 61. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/888726/1/61
- 竹田黙雷 述, 黙雷禅話, 興教書院, 1907, scan 79. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823526/1/79