toko ni tsuku lit. ‘to take your place on the bedding’
Japanese idiom, everyday. To go to bed.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 床に就く
?
Neutral to slightly literary, more common in writing and storytelling than in casual talk, where people just say 寝る. Usually written 床につく in kana and used in the past tense: “早く床についた” (went to bed early). Careful: the same phrase also means to be laid up sick in bed, so context decides which one you mean.
Also said 床につく, 寝床につく
床に就く
in real sentences
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眠かったので床についた。
Nemukatta node toko ni tsuita.
As I was sleepy, I went to bed.
Tatoeba, sentence by mookeee, translation by sundown, CC BY 2.0 FR
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その夜は、早く床についた。
Sono yoru wa, hayaku toko ni tsuita.
I went to bed early that night.
Tatoeba, sentence by small_snow, translation by Hybrid, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 床に就く
come from?
English Wiktionary traces とこ (bed, sleeping place) back to the Man’yōshū (759). Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (via Kotobank) quotes the “fall ill and take to bed” sense from the Gyokujinshō of 1563, and the plain “go to bed” sense from Kunikida Doppo’s Shuchū Nikki (1902). The picture is a Japanese bedroom: the futon is laid on the floor, and going to bed means taking your spot on it.
Mistakes learners make with 床に就く
Reading 床 as ゆか (floor). In this phrase it’s とこ, the old word for a sleeping place, so “ゆかにつく” would mean something like settling onto the floorboards.
Other Japanese idioms like 床に就く
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?
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