家庭円満 katei enman Household Harmony
家庭円満 (katei enman), a harmonious home, is a Meiji word, first known from a Tokyo publisher's advertisement of 1902, coined when 家庭 as home was itself new. Within a year it was the who's-whos' stock compliment to a couple, and a new-words dictionary entered it in 1919.
Abstract
家庭円満, katei enman, a harmonious home, is a Meiji word, first known from an 1902 publisher's advertisement and paid as a compliment to couples in the who's-whos of the 1900s, entered in a new-words dictionary in 1919 and in no national Japanese dictionary opened here since. It is not Chinese.
Overview
The sense. 家庭円満 is said of a household by people looking in, about whether the people inside get along; neither national Japanese dictionary opened here gives it a headword, though the open dictionary JMdict carries it [1].
The words. 家庭 in its present sense is a Meiji word, attested in an 1871 newspaper for inside the house and in a 1897 novel for the smallest social group, husband and wife, parents and children, and the place where they live [2]; the dictionary's note says the word flooded the magazines of the 1890s, as the old feudal 家 was reformed toward a Western style of life and people began to think of 家庭 as the translation of home. Until the middle of the Meiji period, the big dictionary says, 家内 and 家 carried the sense that 家庭 later took over [3]. 円満 is Buddhist, fullness, from a ninth-century text, then round and full of a face, then complete, and last, from about 1905, without corners, getting along [4].
The text in English. Family happiness and household harmony are JMdict's for 家庭円満, which has never had an English dictionary entry of its own.
The historical record
1902. An advertisement invents 家庭円満. Nothing in the National Diet Library's index carries 家庭円満 before 1902, when a Tokyo publisher advertised the eleventh volume of its Home Library, 『家庭の快楽』: of all the pleasures of this world none surpasses the pleasure of the home; how then to obtain the joy of a harmonious home and the delight of the family circle — that is why this book was compiled [5]. The word is built from two Meiji senses at once, 家庭 as home and 円満 as getting along.
1903 to 1931. The stock compliment of the who's-whos and the moralists. Within a year of the advertisement the phrase is a commercial who's-who's standard praise, having raised a son, the home is harmonious and the omens auspicious [6]; the lute and zither in tune, the home harmonious (1903, of a woman professor) [7]; a family of six, the home harmonious (the Hokkaidō settlers' reports of 1906) [8]; the home harmonious and a warm air fills the hall (1906) [9]. The moralists take it up: young men today do not want the pleasures of a harmonious home (1904) [10]; a preacher offers his sermons as some help toward household harmony (1908) [11]; a Chinese-language home-economics text printed in Tokyo in 1908 makes household harmony the mistress's responsibility [12]; and a 1931 Japanese-Chinese dictionary explains it to Chinese readers [13].
1919. The first dictionary headword. A new-words dictionary glosses it カテーエンマン, a household living round and without complaint [14]; the slang dictionaries of 1930 record the tangerine as its joke-synonym, because the segments all cling together [15]. No national Japanese dictionary opened here has given it a headword since.
The sense across time. 家庭円満 has one sense, but it was born a compliment and stayed one: something said of a couple, by a biographer, a preacher or a dictionary example. It is a report on the home.
What is not a source. The phrase is not Chinese: Chinese Wikisource has 家庭圓滿 only in modern court rulings. 家庭円満 is not a four-character idiom in the traditional sense: it is a modern compound with no headword in the national dictionaries opened.
The word in English
1941. 研究社's Japanese-English dictionary. One sentence: they live in such harmony that I never heard their voices ever raised [16].
Today. JMdict gives family happiness; household harmony [1].
A reading
家庭円満 is a Meiji word, a harmonious home, coined when home itself was new and paid as a compliment to couples ever since; it belongs to a wedding and an anniversary more than to a new house.
References
- JMdict, 「家庭円満」, at jisho. https://jisho.org/search/家庭円満
- 「家庭」, 精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/家庭-45442
- 「家内」, 精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/家内-465006
- 「円満」, 精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/円満-448231
- 『家庭の快楽』, 家庭全書 第十一編, 尚文堂, 1902, scan 108. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/848329/1/108
- 『立身致富信用公録』, 1903, scan 17. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1086548/1/17
- 『現今日本名家列伝』, 1903, scan 187. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/777743/1/187
- 北海道協会, 『移住者成績調査』, 1906, scan 36. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/800843/1/36
- 『日本製糸業の大勢』, 1906, scan 63. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/802416/1/63
- 『女道叢話』, 1904, scan 10. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/757229/1/10
- 『家庭説教』, 法蔵館, 1908, scan 130. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/818383/1/130
- 『清国家庭及学堂用家政学』, 富山房, 1908, scan 19. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/848405/1/19
- 『日華新辞典』, 1931, scan 150. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1176442/1/150
- 『新しい語のポケット辞典』, 1919, scan 53. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/962022/1/53
- 『時勢に後れぬ新時代用語辞典』, 1930, scan 199. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1111588/1/199
- 『研究社新和英大辞典』, 1941, scan 24 (s.v. 家内安全) and scan 506 (the 家庭円満 sentence). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126818/1/24 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126818/1/506