To Go Upstream
To Go Back In Time, To Trace Back
intransitive verb, godan verb
This word consists of kanji with hiragana attached. Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means go upstream, so the verb vocab version is to go upstream.
遡る literally means to go upstream against the flow of a river, but it's often used figuratively to mean going back in time or tracing something back to its origin — the idea being that you're going "against the flow" of time. You'll see it used in regard to things like history, root causes, and memories with phrases like 過去に遡る.
This word's reading, さかのぼる, sounds a lot like a combination of two other words you already know: 逆らう and 上る. Think about it: to go upstream, you need to 逆らう (さからう) and 上る (のぼる), because you're going against the current as you go up the river.
過去に遡る
to trace back to the past
数年前に遡る
to go back several years
平安時代に遡る
to go back to the Heian period
昔に遡る
to trace back to the distant past
川を遡る
to go upstream on a river
歴史を遡る
to trace back through history
時代を遡る
to go back in time
時間を遡る
to go back in time
話は十年前に遡る。
The story goes back ten years.
原因を遡って調べた。
We investigated the cause by tracing it back.
事件の経緯を遡って説明した。
I explained the incident by tracing the course of events back to the beginning.
サケが川を遡るのをYouTubeで見ました。
I watched salmon swimming upstream in a river on YouTube.