元気（げんき）: It might be the first Japanese word you ever learned that escapes a nice English translation.

Dictionaries say that it means things like spirited, enlivened, cheerful, peppy, bouncy, bouncing, zippy, energetic, vigorous.

And yeah, it means all of those things.

And none of those things.

The kanji 元 means "beginning," "origin," or "root." All by itself the reading of this is もと (i.e. kunyomi), but when it attaches to other kanji in words, it will often be read as げん (i.e. onyomi). And in rare cases it will be read がん, such as in the word for "New Year's day," which is 元旦（がんたん）... or, sometimes, 元日（がんじつ）.

(Note: You can see trees with roots like this if you go hiking in Kamakura, which is not too far from Tokyo.)

I find it so interesting that characters like 元, "beginning; origin," can connect with characters like 旦, "daybreak; dawn," and 日, "day," to give us words like 元旦（がんたん）and 元日（がんじつ）, because "New Year's day" is, in a way, the "beginning day." The "origin-day" of a year.

It might be fair to say that 元 is a character referring to "a former time." This is why we get fun words like 元カレ（もとカレ // "ex-boyfriend" // literally, "former time + guy"）and 元カノ（もとカノ / "ex-girlfriend" // literally, "former time + girl [カノ is short for 彼女（かのじょ）]）.

Then we have 気.

Adriana taught us all about this character just a couple of lessons ago. 気 will usually be pronounced き, but in rare cases be け (and at the end of the words, the "k" sound sometimes becomes a "g" sound, giving us ぎ and げ).

気 is your "essence" if you will, often getting translated to spirit;  mind;  heart; nature;  disposition; motivation;  intention; mood;  feelings; atmosphere.

And, by some leap of imagination, to touch the origin--the root, the beginning, the foundation--of our essence, is to become 元気（げんき）, a word connoting virility and vigor.

This word, as you may know, is the norm for how-are-you conversations in Japanese:

A:
久しぶり！元気？
ひさしぶり！　げんき？
Long time, no see! How are you?
Literally: "long time, no see + vigorous/spirited?"

B:
元気元気！
げんき　げんき！
I'm great!
Literally: "vigorous/spirited *2."

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But what if someone asks you this question, and you're NOT doing well? In such a case, the conversation might go like this:

A:
久しぶり！元気？
ひさしぶり！　げんき？
Long time, no see! How are you?
Literally: "long time, no see + vigorous/spirited?"

B:
元気じゃないよー。
げんき　じゃない　よー。
NOT good.
Literally: "vigorous/spirited + am not + よー."

Here is where things start to get very interesting.

Have you ever noticed, in dictionaries, that a lot of Japanese words will claim to be BOTH な-adjectives and nouns?

Take 元気, for example. If you look at the Jisho.org entry, you'll see that it's listed as both a noun and a な-adjective:

This is where I'm supposed to insert some amazing, lucid explanation for why this is happening. Instead, I have some sad news for you--I can't explain this. In Japanese, there are a smattering of words that are sometimes used as な-adjectives and sometimes used as nouns. For the most part, this is not something that you need to worry about, because in most cases conjugation rules for な-adjectives and nouns will be the same.

But I think I have found a single example where I can split the two apart:

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元気じゃない VS 元気がない

Above, we saw:

元気じゃないよー。
げんき　じゃない　よー。
NOT good.
Literally: "vigorous/spirited + am not + よー."

This is, if I'm not mistaken, an adjectival usage of 元気 (probably *_*).

It's also pretty much the only situation where you will hear someone snap じゃない onto the end of 元気.

You are much more likely to come across this, instead:

元気（が）ない
げんき（が）ない
to feel down; to lack energy
Literally: "spirit + don't have."

This has to be a noun version, because you can't have/not have an adjective.

Time Out: Are you panicking with all of these grammatical terms? The truth is, you don't really need to worry about this stuff. I learned to use both 元気（が）ない and 元気じゃない without ever even considering whether I was using adjectives or nouns. The clarity only comes in retrospect, in trying to explain their differences.

I almost never include the が in 元気（が）ない, by the way, as it's so common to simply say 元気ない.

This is a really useful phrase because you can simply add ね to it when you want to comment on a person's uncharacteristic lack of energy, joy, spirit--of 元気！

今日元気ないね。なんかあった？
きょう　げんき　ない　ね。　なんか　あった？
You're looking down today. Did something happen?
Literally: "today + feeling down + ね. + something + was/had?"

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Another seemingly noun-like usage of 元気 is when you tell someone to pull out their 元気. That is, to cheer up or stay strong when something bad happens. For this, we say 元気出して（げんき　だして // "cheer up; keep up your strength"). It's like you're telling someone to reach down to the "origins" of their "essence" and to "bring out" that essence to the surface.

Using that, let's make the last sentence into a conversation:

A:
今日元気ないね。なんかあった？
きょう　げんき　ない　ね。　なんか　あった？
You're looking down today. Did something happen?
Literally: "today + feeling down + ね. + something + was/had?"

B:
実は彼氏に振られたんだ。
じつ　は　かれし　に　ふられたんだ。
Actually, my boyfriend broke up with me.
Literally: "to tell the truth + boyfriend + に + was dumped + んだ."

[Insert long conversation about how/why they broke up.]
[Then, after that, A can say...]

A:
元気出して。いい男紹介するよ。
げんき　だして。　いい　おとこ　しょうかい　する　よ。
Cheer up. I'll introduce you to a good guy.
Literally: "元気 + take out. + good + man + introduce + よ."

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You can also say that you are "full of 元気," like this:

今日１０時間寝たから元気いっぱい！
きょう　じゅう　じかん　ねた　から　げんき　いっぱい！
I slept 10 hours last night, so I'm full of energy!
Literally: "today + ten hours + slept + because + 元気 + full!"

To be full of 元気 would have to mean that 元気 is a noun, right? At least it seems that way to me.

But let's look at one more adjectival use of 元気...

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When you are saying goodbye to someone and you won't see them for a long time, you can say 元気でね, and it has the nuance of "take care of yourself" (during the long time from now that I won't see you).

For example, one of my former Japanese coworkers said this to me on our last day working together.

バイバイ。元気でね！
バイバイ。　げんき　で　ね！
Bye. Take care.
Literally: "bye-bye. + 元気 + で + ね."
Note: I think that バイバイ sounds kind of feminine or childish. Rei doesn't think so, but I at least got her to admit that guys don't say this often. Maybe instead just じゃあね for "bye."

I'm pretty sure 元気でね is an abbreviation of 元気でいてね, which would mean something like "Be 元気, OK?" But nobody actually includes いて... so let's just leave it at 元気でね.