Etymology of 方忌み


I have read about the types of 方忌み during the Heian period, but now I am
wondering about the origin of the word 方忌み.

I know what 方忌み is.

> "directional taboo" which is the belief that certain directions and points
> on the compass should be avoided in certain situations.

I also know that 方忌み may have possibly existed before the Heian period.




  * 方【かた】 means _direction_. In modern Japanese, its [Sino-Japanese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_vocabulary) equivalent 方角【ほうがく】 is more commonly used.
  * 忌み【いみ】 is the continuous form (連用形, aka masu-stem) of 忌む【いむ】, which is a verb meaning _to hate and evade_ , _to avoid cursed/bad things_. The inflection is used to [turn this verb into noun](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/32311/5010) (i.e., _evade_ → _evasion_ )

So it's straightforwardly "directional evasion".

Or do you want the origins of 方 and 忌み themselves? Unfortunately they are very
old words ([Yamato kotoba](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_kotoba)) and I
could not find their origin.

Lastly, please keep in mind that
[方忌み](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B9%E9%81%95%E3%81%88) is a very
rare word. I believe most Japanese native speakers have not seen this word,
and even a middle-sized archaic-Japanese dictionary does not have this word.




  * 方【かた】 means _direction_. In modern Japanese, its [Sino-Japanese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_vocabulary) equivalent 方角【ほうがく】 is more commonly used.
  * 忌み【いみ】 is the continuous form (連用形, aka masu-stem) of 忌む【いむ】, which is a verb meaning _to hate and evade_ , _to avoid cursed/bad things_. The inflection is used to [turn this verb into noun](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/32311/5010) (i.e., _evade_ → _evasion_ )

So it's straightforwardly "directional evasion".

Or do you want the origins of 方 and 忌み themselves? Unfortunately they are very
old words ([Yamato kotoba](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_kotoba)) and I
could not find their origin.

Lastly, please keep in mind that
[方忌み](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B9%E9%81%95%E3%81%88) is a very
rare word. I believe most Japanese native speakers have not seen this word,
and even a middle-sized archaic-Japanese dictionary does not have this word.

