Words from Japanese
5 words in Curio passed through Japanese on their way into English.
About Japanese
Principal language of the Japonic family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages and Hachijō · spoken today
Where
Japan, where it is the national language → the Japanese diaspora worldwide
When
Speakers
128M
as of 2019
Speakers, Wikidata figure for 2019
Family path
- Japanese
- English
Where it came from
Little is known of the prehistory of Japanese, or of when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. Attempts to link it with Ainu, Austronesian or Koreanic have not gained widespread acceptance.
Source: Wikipedia
The words, A to Z
- futon
The mattress you fold up and put away started life as a round meditation cushion.
- kamikaze
A word for a suicide pilot began as the name of a storm that saved a nation.
- karate
A martial art whose name once pointed across the sea before it pointed to empty hands.
- origami
A word that literally names its own craft, two simple actions stacked into one.
- tofu
This soft white block carries a name that's literally just a description of what it is.