76968
Looking at jisho, it seems that 愛しい can either be pronounced いとしい or うつくしい or
かなしい. Am I right in assuming that when it is pronounced うつくしい, it has the same
meaning as 美しい(beautiful), and when it is pronounced いとしい, it has the same
meaning as 愛しい (beloved), and when pronounced as かなしい, it means 悲しい(sad). For
cases when it is pronounced as かなしい and うつくしい, what's the difference in
directly using the kanji 美しい and 悲しい against using the kanji 愛しい？

Addendum: The word 愛しい seems to have drastic difference in meanings. From
beloved, to sad, to beautiful! I am assuming it's main meaning is really
beloved rather than the other 2?
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2020-04-30T22:09:38.423
76964
2020-05-01T02:13:30.267
2020-04-30T22:22:41.530
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question
word-choice
愛しい and 美しい and 悲しい
In modern Japanese, 愛しい is almost always read いとしい and means "lovely",
"beloved", "dear", etc. You can safely forget the other readings (and
meanings). My IME does not even convert うつくしい/かなしい to 愛しい.

Actually, in archaic Japanese,
[かなし](https://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%8B%E3%81%AA%E3%81%97) and
[うつくし](https://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%86%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8F%E3%81%97)
did mean "lovely". I vaguely remember I learned them at high school many years
ago, but this knowledge is virtually useless when you read modern Japanese
text. (As an aside, かわいい (かはゆし) meant "embarrassed", "pathetic" or "pitiful"
in old Japanese. There are many similar examples.)

If I encountered 愛しい【かなしい】 or 愛しい【うつくしい】 with furigana in a modern novel, I
would simply be confused first, and then guess the intended meaning purely
from the context.
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2020-05-01T01:50:44.610
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2020-05-01T02:13:30.267
2020-05-01T02:13:30.267
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answer