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Origin and history of Japanese

Japanese(adj.)

1580s, Iapones; see Japan + -ese. As a noun from c. 1600; meaning "the Japanese language" is from 1828. As nouns Purchas has Iaponite (1613), Hakluyt Japonian. The destructive Japanese beetle attested from 1919, accidentally introduced in U.S. 1916 in larval stage in a shipment of Japanese iris.

also from 1580s

Entries linking to Japanese

Japan

1570s, via Portuguese Japao, Dutch Japan, acquired in Malacca from Malay (Austronesian) Japang, from Chinese jih pun, literally "sunrise" (equivalent of Japanese Nippon), from jih "sun" + pun "origin." Japan lies to the east of China. Earliest form in Europe was Marco Polo's Chipangu.

Jap(n.)

colloquial abbreviation of Japanese, 1877, perhaps encouraged or inspired by the common abbreviation Jap.; it was not originally pejorative, but it became intensely so during World War II. It was protested by Japanese before the war, but did not begin to be taboo in the U.S. before 1960s. As an adjective from 1878. For some years after World War II in American English the word also functioned as a verb, "to execute a sneak attack upon," a reference to Pearl Harbor.

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kamikaze
"suicide flier," 1945, Japanese, literally "divine wind," from kami "god, providence" (see kami) + kaze "wind."...As an aside, at war's end, the Japanese had, by actual count, a total of 16,397 aircraft still available for service, including...In fact, however, the Japanese had outfitted many aircraft, including trainers, as potential suicide attackers....As intelligence estimates indicated, the Japanese believed they could inflict at least 50,000 casualties to an invasion force...
kabuki
1896, from Japanese, popular theater (as opposed to shadow puppet-plays or lyrical Noh dramas)....Evans, "A Dictionary of Japanese Loanwords," 1997] Alternative etymology [Barnhart, OED] is that it means literally "art...
Mongolian
As a racial classification for Asiatic peoples (including Chinese, Japanese, Turks, Vietnamese, Lapps, Eskimos, etc.)...
Hotchkiss
In Japanese, the word for "stapler" is hotchikisu after the E. H....
boycott
Quickly adopted by newspapers in languages as far afield as Japanese (boikotto)....
haiku
1902, from Japanese haiku, telescoped (supposedly in the late nineteenth century, by the poet Shiki) from haikai no ku "comic...
tycoon
supporters when addressing foreigners, as an attempt to convey that the shogun was more important than the emperor), from Japanese...
Asian
late 14c., "inhabitant of Asia (Minor)," from Latin Asianus (adjective and noun, "belonging to the province of Asia;" "an inhabitant of Asia"), from Greek Asianos "Asiatic," from Asia (see Asia). It ousted Asiatic as the preferred term mid-20c. The term "Asiatic" has come to be
geisha
1887, "Japanese girl whose profession is to sing and dance to entertain men;" hence, loosely, "prostitute," from Japanese, literally "person accomplished in the social arts," from gei "art, performance" + sha "person." Compare almah, and Athenian auletrides "flute-girls," female
nip
late 14c., nippen, "to pinch sharply; to bite suddenly," probably from or related to Middle Low German nipen "to nip, to pinch," German nippen, Middle Dutch nipen "to pinch," Dutch nijpen, Old Norse hnippa "to prod," but the exact evolution of the stem is obscure. Related: Nipped

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