I'm kind of curious about this, would someone mind going into more detail on the literal meaning of 電探? From what little I'm able to dig up (or remotely understand), it would appear it is a short hand for 電波探信儀?
I'm kind of curious about this, would someone mind going into more detail on the literal meaning of 電探? From what little I'm able to dig up (or remotely understand), it would appear it is a short hand for 電波探信儀?
Wrong final two kanji; it's 電波探知機. The first two kanji mean "electrical waves", but both are used simply to mean radar. (It's a bit like using "RAdio Navigation And Ranging" versus "RADAR", I suppose, though not quite the same.)
You could say it's more like, to stay with a radar theme, how Radome is used instead of RADAR Dome. Or cyborg from cybernetic organism. While the Japanese is more a contraction than a portmanteau, it's quite similar.
The same contraction is applied to make 東大 (Toudai) from 東京大学 (Tokyo Daigaku > Tokyo University) - anyone hearing Toudai knows that it refers to the Tokyo University, not the Tokyo Institute of Technology (東京工業大学 ・ 東工大 / Tokyo Kougyou Daigaku ・ Toukoudai) nor the Agricultural University of Tokyo (東京農業大学 ・ 農大 / Tokyo Nougyou Daigaku ・ Noudai) or any other university in Tokyo.
A google search of 電探 brought up 電波探信儀 on wikipedia, and it is also what a 電探 search on their wikipedia is aliased to (although I rather hate their wikipedia, very frequently their articles aren't linked properly or poorly linked). Only reason I used that. Not sure why 電波探知機 didn't first appear when I checked google translate for radar, although now I see it there... kind of bugs me.
A google search of 電探 brought up 電波探信儀 on wikipedia, and it is also what a 電探 search on their wikipedia is aliased to (although I rather hate their wikipedia, very frequently their articles aren't linked properly or poorly linked). Only reason I used that. Not sure why 電波探知機 didn't first appear when I checked google translate for radar, although now I see it there... kind of bugs me.
Odd. I looked it up in an online dictionary, which returned 電波探知機. I see several hits for 電波探信儀 on Japanese Wikipedia and different Kan-Colle-related pages, though, nearly all of them dealing with different types of sonar/radar. Perhaps it's a peculiar form of ateji, or possibly just archaic, but the meanings of the kanji don't fit. 探知機 (tanchiki) means "detection device/machine", but 探信儀 (tanjingi?) doesn't mean anything as a compound, it just separates into "search-trust-ceremony".
