second · latter

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 乙 is the second of the ten Heavenly Stems, following 甲; its representative on-reading is おつ, and its kun-reading is きのと.
• Basic usage: 甲 and 乙 can serve as labels that distinguish items or parties in documents and explanations.
  • The label 乙 alone does not establish that the person or item has a lower actual status.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Korean learning gloss
  • The inherited Korean learning label glosses 乙 as ‘bird.’
  • That gloss is not a basis for translating Japanese 乙 as 鳥, the Japanese word for a bird.
• Meaning of an expression
  • 甲乙つけがたい means that it is difficult to judge which of two things is better.
  • It does not presuppose that both are poor, so it should not be reduced to a dismissive comparison between two equally unimpressive things.
• Whole-word readings
  • 甲乙 is read こうおつ.
  • 乙女 has the whole-word reading おとめ; it is not formed by joining おつ or きのと character by character.