How to read the 動＿下一, ＿下二 pattern found in dictionaries?

Question

There's a common abbreviation system in dictionaries and I'm wondering how they're read and used.

Here's an example:
dictionary abbreviations

I'm guessing it has something to do with how to fill in the blanks in the example sentences, but hoping you can save me the detective work.

For future reference, all the explanatory notes for the dictionaries at Yahoo are online here. — nkjt, Jul 01 '12 at 18:24

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 30 '12 at 03:47

動 is 動詞, verb.
ラ means the verb conjugates on the r-.
下一 (shimo ichi) and 下二 (shimo ni) are abbreviations for 下一段 (shimo ichidan "lower monograde") and 下二段 (shimo nidan "lower bigrade"). These are verb conjugation types. There are other conjugation types: 四段 (yodan), 五段 (godan), 上一段 (kami ichidan), 上二段 (kami nidan), サ変 (sa-hen), カ変 (ka-hen), ナ変 (na-hen), and ラ変 (ra-hen).

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 30 '12 at 03:42

動 stands for 動詞, and means it is a verb. ラ means that the last consonant of the stem is "r" (belongs to ラ row), which does not have significance in modern account for this type of verbs. 下一 stands for 下一段活用, a terminology used in traditional grammar. In modern terms, it means the stem ends with "e". I.e., the stem is "otozure-". 下ニ stands for 下ニ段活用, a terminology in traditional grammar for classical Japanese.

How to read the 動＿下一, ＿下二 pattern found in dictionaries?

2 Answers2