On Sat, 14 Dec 2013 23:39:07 +0000, Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

Well, I must have been imagining it for the online resource. Looking
at "Japanese Maples" 4th Ed I do see that many names (or most?) are
translated, e.g. opening at random I'm informed that 'Oto hime' means
"little queen of the undersea world." Wow!

"Mermaid Princess"?

From a Romaji to English translation page I find the "hime" means
princess, noble woman, girl; but I was unable to find a relevant meaning
for "oto" (or "ooto", "otoo" or "ootoo"). (Transliteration of Japanese
sometimes uses doubled vowel letters or vowel letters with macrons to
denote long vowels.)

Your translation certainly sounds more concise I was just quoting.
The book has a handy appendix of Japanese words and their meanings,
wherein "hime" is given: "princess, pretty, little." There is a group of
hime cultivars which I think are all dwarves, so I associate the name
with "little princess," personally.

This said, I make no claim that I speak any Japanese outside of the maple
vocabulary, and even there I'm pretty weak!



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy