Origin of 玉(たま) as a circular object


In Chinese, 玉 means jade or something beautiful/valuable. But in Japanese, it
can mean a variety of other things such as a circular object, female
entertainer, testicles etc. I'm curious as to when 玉{たま} started being used in
Japanese to mean things other than the meanings that existed in Chinese.
Sources from olden times using it in such a way would be awesome.




There appear to be two questions in your post. :)

# Origin of the word たま ("jewel; small round thing")

This appears in some of the oldest documents written in Japanese, such as the
[_Nihon Shoki_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_Shoki) of 720. This is
also reflected in Okinawan _tama_ ("jewel; small round thing"), further
indicating that this term is likely part of the core Proto-Japonic vocabulary.

Japanese references like [the _Kokugo Daijiten_ ( _KDJ_ ) entry
here](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%89%E3%83%BB%E7%8F%A0%E3%83%BB%E7%90%83-2060412)
suggest that 玉【たま】 ("jewel; small round thing") may be cognate with 魂【たましい】
("soul, spirit"), possibly from a shared sense of "precious, mystical". Any
further derivation is hard to trace, due to the lack of any older textual
evidence for the term.

Looking outside of Japonic for comparisons, I found that Ainu has a word
_tama_ meaning "ball; bead", as recorded [here on page
437](https://archive.org/details/ainuenglishjapan00batcuoft/page/436/mode/2up?view=theater)
in the 1905 edition of John Batchelor's _Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary_.
However, this seems like a borrowing from Japanese into Ainu: Ainu only seems
to have one other term related to this, _tamane_ ("to become a ball"), but
that's clearly just noun _tama_ ("ball") + verb
[_ne_](https://archive.org/details/ainuenglishjapan00batcuoft/page/276/mode/2up?view=theater)
("to be, to become").

Looking to the Asian mainland, I did find Mongolian
[тана](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0#Mongolian) (
_tana_ , "mother of pearl"). The meaning is roughly in the right general area,
but there is that //n// ↔ //m// mismatch with Japonic.

Korean seems to have borrowed the word _tama_ from Japanese, as
[다마](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%EB%8B%A4%EB%A7%88#Korean) ( _dama_ ,
"ball; marble; lightbulb"). The native Korean term for "marble; gem, jewel" is
[구슬](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%EA%B5%AC%EC%8A%AC#Korean) ( _guseul_ ).
This Koreanic phonemic shape clearly has nothing in common with Japonic
_tama_. Rather, the [_Samguk Sagi_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samguk_Sagi)
records a Goguryeo place name _*kos_ ("jade; jewel") and a likely-related
Baekje place name _*kus_ ("something precious"), possibly cognate with
Japanese [奇【くす】し](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A5%87%E3%81%97#Japanese)
("mystical, strange, wonderful, precious") and
[薬【くすり】](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%96%AC#Japanese) ("medicine", from
the mystical effect these would have on the body).

# Use of the Chinese character 玉 to spell the native Japanese word たま

Written Japanese has used multiple kanji to spell _tama_. [The _KDJ_
entry](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%89%E3%83%BB%E7%8F%A0%E3%83%BB%E7%90%83-2060412)
lists three as the canonical accepted spellings, 玉・珠・球, as does [the
_Daijisen_
entry](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%89-53197#E3.83.87.E3.82.B8.E3.82.BF.E3.83.AB.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.B3.89).

Looking at the three 玉・珠・球, we can see that these all share the element 王,
which is actually the older form of 玉 (as explained [here at
Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%8E%89#Chinese)). These have
some semantic (meaning) overlap in Chinese as well:

  * [玉](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%8E%89#Chinese): "jade; gem"
  * [球](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%90%83#Chinese): "jade; ball"
  * [珠](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%8F%A0#Chinese): "pearl; bead"

All of these refer to "something precious", and "something round". This
matches the core senses underlying usage in Japanese, as you note: _" a
circular object, female entertainer, testicles"_.

As for why 玉 came to be used commonly in Japanese for the "small round thing"
sense, I suspect it was a combination of this semantic overlap, combined with
the simple fact that 玉 is a simpler character and easier to write than the
alternatives.

### Update

The _KDJ_ is pretty good about listing the oldest known citations for each
individual sense of a word. That said, their focus is on the meanings more
than the spellings, so I'm not sure if their
[entry](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%89%E3%83%BB%E7%8F%A0%E3%83%BB%E7%90%83-2060412)
includes the oldest known instances of each spelling.

Be that as it may, a quick perusal there shows that the 玉 spelling in their
quotes first appears from 1566 in reference to "testicles":

  * [1]③(チ) 男子の生殖器。「きんたま」の略。  
※全九集（1566頃）五「へのこはれやぶれ黄水いづ、 **玉** もかたくはれ痛み」

The next-oldest is from 1622 in reference to "pellet, bullet":

  * [1]③(ロ) (「弾・弾丸」とも書く) (初期のものは丸くなっていたところから) 弾丸。  
※信長記（1622）三「是は杉谷善住坊といひし鉄炮の上手、〈略〉二つ **玉** (タマ)をもって纔十間ばかりにてうちはづし申事も」

That said, I've noticed in the past that sometimes the quotes in the _KDJ_ use
normalized or simplified spellings, where the actual source documents used
different characters. So it's possible that different editions of the source
documents might have used 玉 where the citations in the _KDJ_ entry use just
hiragana たま.




There appear to be two questions in your post. :)

# Origin of the word たま ("jewel; small round thing")

This appears in some of the oldest documents written in Japanese, such as the
[_Nihon Shoki_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_Shoki) of 720. This is
also reflected in Okinawan _tama_ ("jewel; small round thing"), further
indicating that this term is likely part of the core Proto-Japonic vocabulary.

Japanese references like [the _Kokugo Daijiten_ ( _KDJ_ ) entry
here](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%89%E3%83%BB%E7%8F%A0%E3%83%BB%E7%90%83-2060412)
suggest that 玉【たま】 ("jewel; small round thing") may be cognate with 魂【たましい】
("soul, spirit"), possibly from a shared sense of "precious, mystical". Any
further derivation is hard to trace, due to the lack of any older textual
evidence for the term.

Looking outside of Japonic for comparisons, I found that Ainu has a word
_tama_ meaning "ball; bead", as recorded [here on page
437](https://archive.org/details/ainuenglishjapan00batcuoft/page/436/mode/2up?view=theater)
in the 1905 edition of John Batchelor's _Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary_.
However, this seems like a borrowing from Japanese into Ainu: Ainu only seems
to have one other term related to this, _tamane_ ("to become a ball"), but
that's clearly just noun _tama_ ("ball") + verb
[_ne_](https://archive.org/details/ainuenglishjapan00batcuoft/page/276/mode/2up?view=theater)
("to be, to become").

Looking to the Asian mainland, I did find Mongolian
[тана](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0#Mongolian) (
_tana_ , "mother of pearl"). The meaning is roughly in the right general area,
but there is that //n// ↔ //m// mismatch with Japonic.

Korean seems to have borrowed the word _tama_ from Japanese, as
[다마](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%EB%8B%A4%EB%A7%88#Korean) ( _dama_ ,
"ball; marble; lightbulb"). The native Korean term for "marble; gem, jewel" is
[구슬](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%EA%B5%AC%EC%8A%AC#Korean) ( _guseul_ ).
This Koreanic phonemic shape clearly has nothing in common with Japonic
_tama_. Rather, the [_Samguk Sagi_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samguk_Sagi)
records a Goguryeo place name _*kos_ ("jade; jewel") and a likely-related
Baekje place name _*kus_ ("something precious"), possibly cognate with
Japanese [奇【くす】し](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A5%87%E3%81%97#Japanese)
("mystical, strange, wonderful, precious") and
[薬【くすり】](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%96%AC#Japanese) ("medicine", from
the mystical effect these would have on the body).

# Use of the Chinese character 玉 to spell the native Japanese word たま

Written Japanese has used multiple kanji to spell _tama_. [The _KDJ_
entry](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%89%E3%83%BB%E7%8F%A0%E3%83%BB%E7%90%83-2060412)
lists three as the canonical accepted spellings, 玉・珠・球, as does [the
_Daijisen_
entry](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%89-53197#E3.83.87.E3.82.B8.E3.82.BF.E3.83.AB.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.B3.89).

Looking at the three 玉・珠・球, we can see that these all share the element 王,
which is actually the older form of 玉 (as explained [here at
Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%8E%89#Chinese)). These have
some semantic (meaning) overlap in Chinese as well:

  * [玉](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%8E%89#Chinese): "jade; gem"
  * [球](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%90%83#Chinese): "jade; ball"
  * [珠](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%8F%A0#Chinese): "pearl; bead"

All of these refer to "something precious", and "something round". This
matches the core senses underlying usage in Japanese, as you note: _" a
circular object, female entertainer, testicles"_.

As for why 玉 came to be used commonly in Japanese for the "small round thing"
sense, I suspect it was a combination of this semantic overlap, combined with
the simple fact that 玉 is a simpler character and easier to write than the
alternatives.

### Update

The _KDJ_ is pretty good about listing the oldest known citations for each
individual sense of a word. That said, their focus is on the meanings more
than the spellings, so I'm not sure if their
[entry](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%89%E3%83%BB%E7%8F%A0%E3%83%BB%E7%90%83-2060412)
includes the oldest known instances of each spelling.

Be that as it may, a quick perusal there shows that the 玉 spelling in their
quotes first appears from 1566 in reference to "testicles":

  * [1]③(チ) 男子の生殖器。「きんたま」の略。  
※全九集（1566頃）五「へのこはれやぶれ黄水いづ、 **玉** もかたくはれ痛み」

The next-oldest is from 1622 in reference to "pellet, bullet":

  * [1]③(ロ) (「弾・弾丸」とも書く) (初期のものは丸くなっていたところから) 弾丸。  
※信長記（1622）三「是は杉谷善住坊といひし鉄炮の上手、〈略〉二つ **玉** (タマ)をもって纔十間ばかりにてうちはづし申事も」

That said, I've noticed in the past that sometimes the quotes in the _KDJ_ use
normalized or simplified spellings, where the actual source documents used
different characters. So it's possible that different editions of the source
documents might have used 玉 where the citations in the _KDJ_ entry use just
hiragana たま.

