Comments on: Japanese Loan Words

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:49:00 +0000

Wow, I can’t believe nobody got the loan word I heard numerous times growing up in the Midwest, usually when talking about amounts in recipes or being asked about how much someone wants of something.

It’s used in everyday speech, not exclusively in the context of a Japanese food or art, which is this:

“skosh” : ‘I’ll have just a skosh.’

This comes from the Japanese word 少し (sukoshi), which means ‘a little bit’ and is really only used for amounts. The ending i of the ‘shi’ character (し) character is often unspoken or barely enunciated, as well as the u in ‘su’ thus making the transliteration “skosh” pretty accurate.

(For anyone who’s never heard this, the o in ‘skosh’ makes an “oh” sound, not an “ah” as in squash.)

By: Jerome

Jerome — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:08:52 +0000

I too might have to dispute the origin of the word “soy”. How is it that this word could be explained as coming from Japanese? Shouyu doesn’t really sound anything like soy. The Japanese word for soy bean, “daizu,” sounds even less like “soy.”

By: Fukumi Takeshita

Fukumi Takeshita — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:51:28 +0000

Oh…and kudzu (the plant that grows all over the south US), is from “kuzu” (葛).

By: Fukumi Takeshita

Fukumi Takeshita — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:35:02 +0000

I’ve also always wondered about “honky-dory”. It really sounds like it could be Japanese. “Honki” (本気) means “truth” or “seriousness”. “Dori” (道理) means “way” or “street”. It seems like things that are “honky-dory” could be going in a “truthful way” (or something like that.)

I haven’t looked into it, but it seems possible. Nothing like “honkidori” is in current use in Japanese, as far as I know, but it could have been loaned in the distant past. Japanese seems to “evolve” pretty fast. I’ve met plenty of native speakers who say they have a hard time reading a newspaper or understanding some speech from just a few decades ago (e.g., as recent as WWII.)

By: Fukumi Takeshita

Fukumi Takeshita — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:23:42 +0000

“oruka” (オルカ) is a word for killer whale in Japanese (though more common is “shachi” [シャチ]). The word for dolphin is “iruka” (イルカ). Doesn’t it seem like “iruka” and “oruka” should be somehow related, and that orca is of Japanese origin? Well, it turns out that “orca” is of Latin origin.

Maybe the Japanese “oruka” and the English “orca” are both loaned from Latin. If that’s the case, then why are the Japanese “oruka” and “iruka” so similar?! I don’t think that “iruka” is from Latin. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but it’s a head-scratcher to me.