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Well im a fire performer and my group is looking for a name that will stand out. A lot of use are big into Japanese culture and I have a few years of high school Japanese so we though that we should go for the Japanese word for ignition but I am having a little confusion between 点火 and 発火. As I understand 点火 is used for lighting something on fire while 発火 is used for something like firing a gun. Im also thinking about maybe using 発火点. Im really hoping you guys could explain the difference a little better so we don't with a name that doesn't translate right. Well at least its not a tattoo. Its always fun to point out a mistranslated tattoo.
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Have you checked all of these out in Yahoo!, which gives more details than Denshi Jisho?
点火 http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E7%82%B9%E7%81%AB&stype=0&dtype=3
発火 http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E7%99%BA%E7%81%AB&stype=0&dtype=3
発火点 http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E7%99%BA%E7%81%AB&dtype=3&stype=0&dname=2na&ref=1&index=03474400
I also found this interesting page on Japanese Wiki which sets out the differences:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%82%B9%E7%81%AB
According to that, 点火 is when someone intentionally ignites something, whereas 発火 is when something catches on fire (without someone's intention).
However, looking back at the dictionary page for 発火 you see it can be made intentional by using 発火させる, so the difference is not so clear-cut.
Personally I think 発火点 sounds best, so that would be my pick. :)
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- Richard October 2009