Top Secret Squid Files

I’m a Japanese Language minor and love to learn about kanji. One day, I was bored and looked up the Japanese word for giant squid, which turns out to be daiouika (hiragana: だいおういか).

The kanji for giant squid is such: 大王烏賊

This is fascinating because there are kanji specifically used to spell ika (which is simply squid), but this mixture of kanji does not make use of them whatsoever.

The kanji meanings:

大 - big/large (dai)

王 - king/rule (ou)

烏 - crow/raven (i)

賊 - robber/thief (ka)

Here’s why it’s weird. First off, 烏 means crow, which is random when discussing giant squid kanji. According to Denshi Jisho, it can sound like a lot of things, but does not normally translate to the “i” sound. Similarly, 賊 does not usually translate to a “ka” sound, and also looks out of place in the context of giant squid.

I asked my sensei about it and this was her explanation:

The giant squid floats on the top of the water and looks like it is dead. The crow, a well known scavenger, takes the bait and swoops down to pick off what it desires. However, the squid has tricked the crow, snatches (or rather, steals) it from the sky, and eats the crow instead.

And that’s an insanely cool reason as to why the kanji for squid literally means “giant king crow thief.”