-------------------------------------------------------------------- Tanaka: gairaigo origins --- Japanese loan-words with interesting etymologies -------------------------------------------------------------------- (access location) in my WWW site (http://copper.ucs.indiana.edu/~tanaka), under the directory "other stuff by Tanaka". (submissions) please send them to me by e-mail. -------------------------------------------------------------------- (index) -------------------------------------------------------------------- - gairaigo with interesting origins -------------------------------------------------------------------- --- abekku (a (heterosexual) couple out on a date) --- bakku-shan (a girl who appears pretty when seen from behind) -?- batten (a conjunction meaning "but"; used in the Kyuushuu area) --- beppin (a pretty girl or woman) --- chongaa (bachelor; a single man) from the Korean word "chong kak" --- doru (dollar) -?- garou (art gallery) --- gojira (name of a monster in the Japanese movie series) --- gomu ("rubber" and also "condom") from the Dutch word "gom" --- gyouza (pot-stickers) from Chinese word "chiao tzu". --- han-don ("Saturday" or "half-Sunday") --- karaoke (orchestral accompaniment without the singing part) -?- oo-esu (an interjection used during tug-of-war (tunahiki)) --- pan (bread) from Portuguese word "pa~ o") --- rootoru (old) from Chinese word "lao tou er" --- tegusu ("fish line" or "fishing line" (?)) --- toguro (spiral or coil formed by a snake and other things) --- tonakai (reindeer) from the Ainu word "tanakkai" --- tonkati (hammer) -------------------------------------------------------------------- - appendix: English words and phrases with unexpected origins -------------------------------------------------------------------- --- futon (from Japanese) (pretty obvious but not for everyone) -?- hobo (from Japanese "houbou" ?) --- honcho (from Japanese "hanchou") -?- long time no see (from Chinese ?) --- tsunami, tsunamic (from Japanese "tunami") --- tycoon (from Japanese "taikun") --- typhoon (influenced by Chinese) -------------------------------------------------------------------- (definition of "gairaigo with interesting etymology") --- a gairaigo word that doesn't seem like one. (examples: toguro tonakai) --- a gairaigo word with an unobvious origin. (examples: chongaa rootoru tonkati) also --- words that seem like loan-words but aren't. (example: tegusu) -------------------------------------------------------------------- (preface (non-political)) i have a dictionary of loan-words "`concise' gairaigo jiten" (Sanseido) i look at it all the time. it is really interesting. some of the entries contain pretty detailed descriptions of word origins and circumstances. i went to the library and was amazed by the number of books available on Japanese etymologies (both gairaigo and others). i guess one of the most interesting aspects of the Japanese language for me is the variety of word origins. with some words it's hard to guess the origins, or even to decide if they're originally Japanese. -------------------------------------------------------------------- (preface (political)) among my goals in compiling this list are --- to show the beauty and flexibility of the Japanese language. --- to counter the notion that the Japanese are stupid copycats of American culture, a notion that US media has been promoting. when you study Japanese loan-words, you find that 1. loanwords are not only from English and other Eurpean languages. 2. loanwords result not from stupid, straightforward copying; rather, they result from phonological and semantic transformations that are complex and creative. -------------------------------------------------------------------- - gairaigo with interesting origins -------------------------------------------------------------------- (not all are from the dictionary.) --- abekku (a (heterosexual) couple out on a date) from the French "avec" (a preposition meaning "with") --- bakku-shan (a girl who appears pretty when seen from behind) (this word is pretty outdated now.) bakku: from English "back" shan: from German "scho:n" (meaning "beautiful") (from the 1930s to the 1950s or 1960s (?) "shan" was commonly used to mean "a beautiful girl".) Together "bakku-shan" means "a girl who appears pretty when seen from behind (but not when seen from the front)." (It's kind of like "shunkan-bijin" --- "a momentary beauty".) in the 1970s (?) there was a series of TV commercials for EMERON shampoo in Japan that capitalized on this ("chotto hurikaette kudasai"). -?- batten (a conjunction meaning "but"; used in the Kyuushuu area) from English "but then". this is not from the dictionary. i read and heard about it on several separate occasions. i don't have any references. --- beppin (a pretty girl or woman) (a genuinely Japanese word) i think there is a magazine named "Beppin". from: nakano@rssun3.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp (NAKANO Yasuaki) | | It has kanji "betu"+"hin", which means "a special mistress of | an emperor". It might not be a genuine Japanese word, but an | imported one from China. there are two different kanji characters for HIN. --- chongaa (bachelor; a single man) from the Korean word "chong kak" a different dictionary says that in Korean the word is (perhaps slightly) derogatory. it is not at all negative in Japanese. on at least two separate occasions i've heard a Japanese guy say to non-Japanese: (when asked "Are you married?") "No, I am chonger." thinking that the word is of English origin. --- doru (dollar) DORU is short for DORURARU, which was how "dollar" was first read by Japanese in romaji-style. (from another dictionary) -?- garou (art gallery) i read somewhere that GAROU came from the English word "gallery", that the kanji combination "picture" + "corridor" was invented to mimic the sound "gallery". (i think they do a lot of this in Chinese.) could someone give me a solid reference for this? --- gojira (name of a monster in the Japanese movie series) English spelling: "Gozilla" or "Godzilla". this word was made up from GORIRA (gorilla) and KUJIRA (whale). GOJIRA debuted in the Toho (To^ho^) movie in 1954. i think a few of the GOJIRA movies were produced/created by a person named TANAKA Tomoyuki, who also created "Ultra Man". a number of times in the last 20 years, i've been asked by non-Japanese people about my relationship to Mr Tanaka (and his creations). Answer: we are unrelated. Tanaka is a very common family name. and Tomoyuki is a fairly common too. (e.g., General Yamashita, who was hanged by Americans after the Tokyo war tribunal, had the name Tomoyuki.) the KANJI characters for TOMO and YUKI in Mr Tanaka (the famous creator) are both different from mine. --- gomu ("rubber" and also "condom") from the Dutch word "gom" --- gyouza (pot-stickers) from Chinese word "chiao tzu". the dictionary tells me the Japanese pronunciation comes from the Shandong dialect. in the Beijing dialect it's pronounced more like "jiao-zu". --- han-don ("Saturday" or "half-Sunday") DON comes from Japanese DONTAKU, which comes from the Dutch word "zondag" meaning Sunday. a different spelling of the Dutch word is reported. Andrea Obana said: Sanseido's Shin-Meikai Kokugo Jiten [...] the Dutch word for Sunday, "Zontag." this word is becoming outdated because more and more offices and schools take the whole Saturday off, not just half of it. "hakata dontaku" is a yearly festival in Kyuushuu in May. --- karaoke (orchestral accompaniment without the singing part) this word has entered the the English vocabulary. KARA means "empty". OKE is short for OOKESUTORA (orchestra). -?- oo-esu (an interjection used during tug-of-war (tunahiki)) origin unknown to Tanaka. i've wondered about this for years. when people do tug-of-war (tunahiki) in Japan, we almost always say "oo-esu! oo-esu!" is it from O and S? --- pan (bread) from Portuguese word "pa~ o") i thought this was from French. --- rootoru (old) from Chinese word "lao tou er" i think this is usually used in reference to old baseball players, old ships, old trains, ... . i thought the word came from a European language. --- tegusu ("fish line" or "fishing line" (?)) (a genuinely Japanese word) i thought the word was a gairaigo because 1. it is almost always written in katakana. 2. it looks like TEKKUSU (from English "textile" or "texture"), which is found in synthetic fabric names, like GOA-TEKKUSU. from: nakano@rssun3.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp (NAKANO Yasuaki) | | My dictionary says "tegusu" is fiber taken from cocoons of | "tegusu-san", a kind of silkworm ("san" means a silkworm, not | an honorific). "Tegusu-san" is said to live in Taiwan and | South China, so there is possibility that the word comes from | this area. --- toguro (spiral or coil formed by a snake and other things) from the Korean word "tongkorami" which is from the Mongolian word "tugurik" (entered Japanese in the Edo period) --- tonakai (reindeer) from the Ainu word "tanakkai" --- tonkati (hammer) from the Malay word "tongkat" meaning "cane" or "stick" -------------------------------------------------------------------- - appendix: English words and phrases with unexpected origins -------------------------------------------------------------------- many English words and phrases have Yiddish origins. "Big deal!" "Eat your heart out." "Enough already!" "for real" "Go figure." "Look who's talking." see the book "The Joys of Yinglish" (Penguin). see also the sections "word origins" and "phrase origins" in the FAQ file. ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.usage.english/alt.usage.english_FAQ --- futon (from Japanese) (pretty obvious but not for everyone) on-line Wesbster: fu-ton \'f:u-,ta^:n\ n, pl futons also futon [Jp] (1876) :a mattress filled usu. with cotton that is placed on the floor for use as a bed -?- hobo (from Japanese "houbou" ?) i read somewhere that this word is from Japanese "houbou", which means "here and there", because hobos wander here and there. was i duped? on-line Wesbster: 1ho-bo \'ho^--(,)bo^-\ [perh. alter. of ho, boy] (1889) 1: a migratory worker 2: a homeless and usu. penniless vagrant 2hobo vi (1906) :to live or travel in the manner of a hobo --- honcho (from Japanese "hanchou") on-line Wesbster: hon-cho \'ha^:n-(,)cho^-\ [Jp hancho^- squad leader, fr. han squad + cho^- head, chief] (1947) :BOSS, BIG SHOT; also: HOTSHOT 2 -?- long time no see (from Chinese ?) does anyone have a solid reference about the assertion that the English phrase "long time no see" originated from a Chinese phrase? many Chinese people take this assertion for granted. --- tsunami, tsunamic (from Japanese "tunami") on-line Wesbster: tsu-na-mi \(t)su.-'na^:m-e^-\ [Jp] :a great sea wave produced by submarine earth movement or volcanic eruption :TIDAL WAVE -- tsu-na-mic \-ik\ adj --- tycoon (from Japanese "taikun") on-line Wesbster: ty-coon \t[0xF5]^--'k:un\ n [Jp taikun, fr. Chin (Pek) ta4 great + chun1 ruler] (1858) 1: SHOGUN 2a: a top leader (as in politics) 2b: a businessman of exceptional wealth and power: MAGNATE --- typhoon (influenced by Chinese) on-line Wesbster: ty-phoon \t[0xF5]^--'f:un\ n [alter. (influenced by Chin -- Cant -- taai^ fung typhoon, fr. taai^ great + fung wind) of earlier touffon, fr. Ar t.Ufa^-n hurricane, fr. Gk typho^-n whirlwind; akin to Gk typhein to smoke] (1588) 1: a tropical cyclone occurring in the region of the Philippines or the China sea 2: WHIRLWIND 2a ;;; (Mr.) TANAKA Tomoyuki (Tanaka is my family name.) ;;; ;;; WWW: http://copper.ucs.indiana.edu/~tanaka ;;; e-mail: tanaka@indiana.edu