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I encountered some sentences about 宝くじ, but am kind of confused. The literal
definition seems to be "lottery". In the US at least you pretty much always
buy a "lottery ticket", never heard someone say "I bought a lottery". Consider
the sentences:

> でも、まあ、宝くじなんてなかなか当るもんじゃ、ありませんですからねぇ。

and

> あれっ・・・？あの宝くじ、捨てちゃったんですか？あーあ、せっかく４等だったのに・・・

It sounds like the first one is specifically talking about the lottery system,
and how by its nature few win. The second is talking about a specific lottery
ticket being thrown away. Is the meaning of 宝くじ purely contextual?
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2017-12-09T17:00:06.083
55060
2017-12-10T01:58:13.517
2017-12-10T01:58:13.517
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question
meaning
Is the meaning of 宝くじ contextual?
Yes, 宝くじ refers to both the system and the ticket. (This means Japanese
speaker who is learning English may well say "I bought a lottery".)

くじ by itself refers to a lot, and dictionaries I've seen only say 宝くじ refers
to a certain type of ticket.

> ### たから‐くじ
>
> 公共事業資金を得る目的で地方公共団体が売り出す賞金付きのくじ。当籤金とうせんきん付証票。[明鏡国語辞典 第二版]

Since there is no different word that refers to the system itself, 宝くじ is also
used to refer to the system.
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2017-12-10T00:21:31.460
55064
2017-12-10T00:21:31.460
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answer
「宝{たから}くじ」 can mean both:

1) the system and practice of lottery (intangible)

2) lottery ticket(s) (tangible)

So, 「宝くじを買{か}う」 means "to buy lottery tickes" and 「宝くじを捨{す}てる」 means "to throw
away lottery tickets". Very few people would use the term 「宝くじ券{けん}」 to say
those in informal daily conversations.

As you suspect, which meaning the word is being used for depends totally on
the context. If that created any confusion at all, we naturally would have
long been using two different terms instead.
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2017-12-10T00:36:35.307
55066
2017-12-10T00:36:35.307
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answer