What exactly is 「だらし」?


WWWJDIC states that 「だらしない」 can be written with kanji as 「だらし無い」, which
suggests that the phrase is a negative construction that uses 「無い」, unlike
words like 「すくない」 and 「あぶない」. Furthermore, 「だらしが無い」 and 「だらしの無い」 are listed as
the other two variants of the phrase, which imply that the phrase is using
「だらし」 as a noun, instead of being derived from the negative of non-existent
verb 「だらしる」. However there is no dictionary entry on 「だらし」 other than as
"dalasi", the currency of the country of Gambia, and "だらしない" variants.

So, what exactly is 「だらし」? Or was there a verb 「だらしる」 which is now extinct?




Interesting question. The 日本国語大辞典 says that だらしない appears to be an inversion
of しだらない, quite possibly a self-conscious thing like せるき for きせる (the Edo-
period book Ukiyoburo explicitly claims this).

The roots of しだらない are murkier. しだら has negative connotations on its own, and
may come from Buddhist jargon, the mimetic しどろ, or somewhere else. But if しだら
is negative on its own, then the ない is probably the adjective suffix ない, like
in 汚い etc., not the negative 無い.

So: etymologically, there is no such thing as a だらし. しだらない became だらしない, and
this was then reanalyzed as だらし + ない. So a phrase like だらしがない is sort of like
"Are you _being have_?" in English: a later reanalysis of a word that didn't
originally break down that way.




Interesting question. The 日本国語大辞典 says that だらしない appears to be an inversion
of しだらない, quite possibly a self-conscious thing like せるき for きせる (the Edo-
period book Ukiyoburo explicitly claims this).

The roots of しだらない are murkier. しだら has negative connotations on its own, and
may come from Buddhist jargon, the mimetic しどろ, or somewhere else. But if しだら
is negative on its own, then the ない is probably the adjective suffix ない, like
in 汚い etc., not the negative 無い.

So: etymologically, there is no such thing as a だらし. しだらない became だらしない, and
this was then reanalyzed as だらし + ない. So a phrase like だらしがない is sort of like
"Are you _being have_?" in English: a later reanalysis of a word that didn't
originally break down that way.

