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In classical Japanese, did standalone noun “好き” mean a person who likes
something? I do not think that it does in modern Japanese, although it
sometimes means a person when used as a suffix (e.g. 野球好きが集まる公園).

If it did, it explains why 好き can be equated with ものの上手 (a very skilled
person) in the proverb “好きこそものの上手なれ,” which I failed to explain in my answer
to the question “[Help on a specific usage of
こそ](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4477/help-on-a-specific-
usage-of-%e3%81%93%e3%81%9d)” by yadokari.
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2012-02-04T14:20:52.087
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2012-02-09T04:58:53.543
2017-04-13T12:43:48.447
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meaning nouns classical-japanese
Did standalone noun “好き” mean a person in classical Japanese?
I don't think it did. I haven't encountered it with that meaning, I can't find
that meaning in a dictionary, and there was already the word "sukisha" or
"sukimono" (spelt various ways) with that meaning.

All that is just negative evidence, but there is additional evidence re what
"好き" means in this context if you look at the full version of the proverb.
日本国語大辞典's oldest attestation is from 其角十七回 (1723), and is inside a poem, as
follows:

> 器用さとけいことすきと三つのうちすきこそものの上手なりけれ、と口ずさみせられけるが

There are other websites that attribute the poem, or a very similar one, to
Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591), which would obviously predate Kikaku, but I haven't
been able to find a reliable source for this. Here's an example of a slightly
different version attributed to SR:

> 器用さと 稽古と好きの そのうちで 好きこそものの 上手なりけれ

In both of these you can see that 好き first appears in the same "slot" as 器用さ
(skill) and 稽古 (practice), which are definitely abstract nouns. I guess the
second appearance of 好き might be intended to mean "a person who has 好き", but
interpreting the なりけれ part more flexibly (or adopting dainichi's "liking =
excelling" suggestion) seems like a more natural strategy to me than forcing
好き to behave that way.
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2012-02-07T11:26:32.297
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2012-02-09T04:58:53.543
2012-02-09T04:58:53.543
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answer