Food - E

Japanese: 餌 - え

〘noun〙① Food to be given to birds, beasts, insects, fish, etc. to raise them. Also, food used for the purpose of luring and capturing living things. Bait. ※Shoki (720) Before the Regent Jingu ( Kitano Honkun ) "The Empress then bent the needle and made a hook, and took the turtles to use as bait . " ※Takanawa Hon Heike (before the 13th century) 6 "A cormorant fisherman in Katsura was trying to catch and kill a turtle to use as bait for his cormorants." ② Money, profit, etc. given to people to entice them. Bait. ③ A sacrifice for another's desire, violence, etc. Prey. ※Kinseiki-bun (1875-81)〈Somezaki Nobufusa〉VIII “Do not carelessly use our commander as food for bandits . ” [Eloquence] (1) From ancient times, it was widely used to mean “food for animals,” but from the Middle Ages onwards, “eba” was often used instead.
(2) In the mid-Edo period, "esa" appeared for the meaning of ①, and "ejiki" appeared for the meaning of ③, and the semantic domains were divided and fixed. As a result, in many cases, "e" became a literary word in these vocabulary, or remained as a compound word.

E- sae‥ [food]

〘Noun〙① = E (bait) ①※Miscellaneous haiku, Yanagi Taru-Ichikyu (1784) "As he gobbles down fried rice, he offers up bait" ② Money or profit given to someone to entice them. ※Kabuki, 𢅻Zasseki Sonkan (1823) Shitatsu "I'm just trying to get things done with profit, so I've sent this messenger to use my sister as bait ."

Source: The Selected Edition of the Japanese Language Dictionary About the Selected Edition of the Japanese Language Dictionary Information

Japanese:

〘名〙① 鳥、獣、虫、魚などに与えて飼育するための食物。また、生きものをおびき寄せて捕える目的で用いる食物。えさ。※書紀（720）神功摂政前（北野本訓）「是に皇后(きさいのみや)針を勾(ま)げて鈎(ち)を為(つく)り粒(いひぼ)を取りて餌(ヱ)に為(し)て」※高野本平家（１３Ｃ前）六「かつらの鵜飼が鵜の餌(ヱ)にせんとて、亀をとって殺さんとしけるを」② 人を誘惑するために与える金銭や利益など。えさ。③ 他の欲望、暴力などの犠牲。えじき。※近世紀聞（1875‐81）〈染崎延房〉八「我が隊長をやみやみと賊徒の餌(ヱ)とする事なかれ」[語誌](1)上代から「動物の食料」を意味するものとして広く用いられたが、中世以降、「えば」が使われることも少なくなかった。
(2)江戸中期には、①の意では「えさ」、③の意では「えじき」が現われ、意味領域が分割され固定化された。この結果、多くの場合、「え」は、これらの語彙の文章語となったり、複合語として残るなどした。