頑張って ganbatte Go For It
頑張って (ganbatte) is the cheer of modern Japan, the request form of the verb 頑張る. The verb is in print in the 1880s, and its sense of enduring is in reports of the Russo-Japanese War by 1905. This study follows the verb from the eye that watches to the will that holds on.
Abstract
頑張って, ganbatte, is the て-form of 頑張る used as a request, the cheer of modern Japan. The verb is written in borrowed characters; the dictionaries derive it from 眼張る, to fix the eyes on, or, as a second theory, from 我に張る, to insist on one's own way, and its senses run from watching to planting oneself to insisting to enduring. It is in print from the 1880s, first for holding one's ground and one's opinion, and its enduring sense is in the reports of the Russo-Japanese War by 1905, where the dictionary's first citation is a children's song of 1944.
Overview
The sense. Hold on; keep going; do your best: the word a dojo says, a request to endure.
The words. 頑張って ganbatte is the て-form of 頑張る, a verb written with borrowed characters: the dictionaries derive it from 眼張る, to fix the eyes on (1745), or, as a second theory the same dictionary records, from 我張る or 我に張る, to insist on one's own way (its sense ⑥: 自説を強硬に主張する … 我を張る), and its senses run from watching to planting oneself to insisting to enduring [1].
The text in English. Go for it is an old verb phrase and a slogan only since about 1980, when its frequency quadruples; the subtitle corpus renders it 頑張れよ, ファイト, やれよ, 行け, and do your best is the older dictionary equivalent of 頑張る.
The historical record
1886 to 1907. 頑張つて, from watching to enduring. The form is in print by 1886, in 坪内逍遥's novel of student life: 先方も頑張ツてきかない, the other side holds out and will not listen, the insisting sense [2]; a satire of 1890 has a man sit 眼を鷹のやうにして頑張つて, his eyes like a hawk's, the watching sense [3]. By 1905 it is the war reports' word for holding on: an officer writes 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 held on as hard as I could, but the surgeons sent him home [4]. In 1907 漱石's cat watches a man 頑張つて居る, standing on his opinion that everyone else is neurotic [5]; and 黙雷's Zen talks say 一人でも頑張つて一陽來復の時節を待つのだ, hold on alone and wait for the year to turn [6]. The 日本国語大辞典 first cites the enduring sense from a children's song of 1944.
What is not a source. The 1809 kabuki that first writes 頑張 means keep an eye on, and is the spelling's witness, not the sense's.
A reading
A cheer, not a text, and its history is the verb's, from eyes to endurance. On a wall it is the word a dojo says, and the Zen teacher's 1907 hold on alone and wait for the year to turn is the sense at its best.
Notes
頑張って is the て-form used as a request; the imperative is 頑張れ.
References
- 「眼張る」, 精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/眼張る
- 坪内逍遥, 当世書生気質, 1886 (the index's text). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/887445
- 老若男女国会合点, 1890 (the index's text). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/784005
- 日露戦争実記, April 1905 (the index's text; open at the Diet Library only), reprinted in 日露戦史大全, 1906. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1592454 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2391119
- 夏目漱石, 吾輩ハ猫デアル, 中, 1907, National Diet Library Digital Collections. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/888726
- 竹田黙雷, 黙雷禅話, 1907, National Diet Library Digital Collections. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823526