Hello! I’ve been trying to play games in Japanese lately to improve my reading speed, but I can’t figure out why なつき is used to describe fondness or a relationship and my dictionaries are not yielding the explanation I’m looking for.
This has showed up when describing the relationship between Pokémon and you (the trainer) and in Tamagotchi (where the player is the caregiver). Is なつき a contraction of a longer phrase maybe?
EDIT:
IT’S 懐くTHANK YOU.
so correct me if I’m wrong — it’s なつき because the word is a noun derived from a verb (I know there are fancier linguistic words to use to describe this but I can’t recall it right now).
2 comments
Probably comes from the verb 懐く(なつく) which can be used to describe affection or attraction in a relationship.
It’s just the noun form of 懐（なつ）く (which means being emotionally attached). Yomichan shows 懐く as the second result when you hover over なつき.