英和和英

読み方 そもそも

副詞

1

（＝さて）now

用例

• そもそもこの日本の国は
  Now, this land of the Rising Sun is...

• 彼の成功はそもそも故ある哉だ
  It is not without cause that he succeeds
  It is no wonder that he should succeed
  What wonder that he should succeed!
• 彼の大学者と認らるるそもそも故ある哉
  Not for nothing is he acknowledged as a great scholar.

2

（＝第一に）in the first place; to begin with

用例

• それがそもそも間違っている
  You are wrong there, in the first place.

• それがそもそも失錯だ
  That was a blunder, to begin with.
• そもそもの始め、そもそもの起こり
  the very first―the very beginning
• 日本で英学を学んだのは彼がそもそもの始めであった
  He was the first man to study English in Japan.
• 日本で鉄道のかかったのは京浜鉄道がそもそもの始めであった
  The Tokyo-Yokohama railway was the first line to be laid in Japan.
• それがそもそもの病みつきだ
  That was the beginning of the affair.

〈以下特例〉

• そんなことはそもそも末だ
  Those are minor matters―trifling matters.