Etymologie, Etimología, Étymologie, Etimologia, Etymology, (griech.) etymología, (lat.) etymologia, (esper.) etimologio
UK Vereinigtes Königreich Großbritannien und Nordirland, Reino Unido de Gran Bretaña e Irlanda del Norte, Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord, Regno Unito di Gran Bretagna e Irlanda del Nord, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, (esper.) Britujo
Ismus, Ismo, Isme, Ismo, Ism, (esper.) ismoj
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infoplease.com - CWiE
Chinese & Korean Words in English

Asian loan words in English by Ann-Marie Imbornoni

One of the chief characteristics of English is its teeming vocabulary, an estimated 80% of which has come from other languages! Linguistic borrowing has occurred over many centuries, whenever English speakers have come into contact with other cultures, whether through conquest and colonization, trade and commerce, immigration, leisure travel, or war.

While English has borrowed most heavily from the languages of Europe and the Near East, it has also acquired many loan words from Asia, sometimes through the intermediary of Dutch, the native language of the merchant-sailors who dominated the Spice Islands trade in the 17th century.

Many of these borrowed words no longer seem foreign, having been completely assimilated into English. Some examples are "boondocks", "gingham", and "ketchup". Others are still strongly associated with their country of origin, such as terms for specific "ethnic" dishes or the different schools of martial arts.

Words derived from:

• Chinese & Korean
• Japanese
• Malay & Tagalog
• Polynesian

by Ann-Marie Imbornoni

Amoy (eastern China)

• "pekoe", a type of tea.
• "tea", originally pronounced like "tay," can be traced to Dutch thee, from Malay and Amoy.

Cantonese (southern China, Hong Kong)

• "bok choy", meaning "white vegetable."
• "chop chop", means "hurried."
• "chop suey", from a word meaning "miscellaneous bits."
• "chow", related to chop in chop suey, from a word meaning "food, miscellany."
• "chow chow", means "doggie."
• "ketchup", from a word meaning "tomato sauce."
• "kumquat", a small citrus fruit.
• "typhoon", from the words for "great wind."
• "wok", meaning "cauldron."
• "yen", meaning a "yearning" or "strong desire."

Mandarin (Beijing, China; official national standard)

• "gung ho", a motto used by the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, from words meaning "work together." It was picked up by U.S. Marines during World War II.
• "kow-tow", from words meaning "to knock [one's] head."
• "kung fu", from gong fu, meaning "skill, art."

Korean

• "tae kwon do, meaning "trample-fist-way."

zompist.com
English words from Chinese

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• aikido - Japanese aikido ? M. hé ‘unite’ + qì ‘chi’ + dào ‘way’
• banzai - Japanese ? M. wànsuì ‘10,000 years’
• Beijing- M. beijing ‘northern capital’
• bok choy - C. baak choy = M. báicài ‘white vegetable’
• bonsai - Japanese ? M. pén ‘basin’ + zai ‘plant’ (but the M. term is now pénjing)
• bonze - Japanese bonso ? M. fánseng ‘Buddhist monk’; fán ? Sanskrit brahma?as ‘Brahmins’
• bushido - Japanese bushido ? wushì ‘warrior (war-person)’ + dào ‘way’
• Canton - M. Guangdong ‘wide east’— now the name of the province not the city, which is Guangzhou ‘wide state’
• chai - Russian ‘tea’ ? M. chá
• Jackie Chan - C. chan = M. chén ‘arrange’, a common surname
• cheongsam - C. = M. chángshan ‘long clothes’
• chi - M. qì ‘breath, spirit, vitality’
• China - Sanskrit China ? (probably) M. Qín dynasty
• china (ware) - Persian chini— the first (17th century) citations in English are apt to be spelled chiney, cheney— ? Sanskrit China (q.v.)
• chin chin (toast) - M. qing-qing
• Ching - M. Qing dynasty = ‘pure’
• chop chop (fast) - Pidgin ? C. kap
• chop suey - C. zaap6 seoi3 = M. zásuì ‘mixed pieces’
• chopsticks - loose Pidgin translation of C. fai chi = M. kuàizi ‘fast ones’
• chow mein - C. chau min = M. chaomiàn ‘stir-fried noodles’
• chow (dog) - Pidgin ? C. kau = M. gou
• chow (food) - Pidgin ? M. chao ‘stir-fry’
• Chung-Kuo - M. Zhongguó ‘middle country’, i.e. China
• Confucius - Latin ? M. Kong fuzi ? family name kong ‘hole’ + a title, ‘master’
• daimyo - Japanese daimyo ? M. dàmíng ‘big name’
• dazibao - M. dàzìbào ‘big character newspaper’
• dim sum - C. dim2 sam1 = M. dian xin ‘order heart’
• dojo - Japanese dojo ? M. dào ‘way’ + chang ‘yard’ (i.e. ‘place of the Way’)
• egg foo young - C. fu yung = M. fúróng ‘hibiscus’
• feng shui - M. fengshui ‘wind-water’
• futon - Japanese, from earlier hoton ? M. pú ‘reed’ + tuán ‘body, mass’; the use of ? (M. bù ‘cloth’) is a modern substitution.
• gaijin - Japanese ‘foreigner’ ? M. wàirén ‘outsider’ = ‘outside, foreign’ + ‘person’
• geisha - Japanese ? M. yì ‘art’ + zhe ‘person’
• General Tso’s chicken - after Zuo Zongtáng; zuo = ‘left’
• ginkgo - a misreading of Japanese ?? as gin + kyo = M. yínxìng ‘silver apricot’
• ginseng - M. rénshen ‘man’ + ‘ginseng’
• gwailo - C. gwai2 lou2 = M. guilao ‘ghost’ + a despective suffix, probably etymologically equivalent to lao ‘old’
• gung ho - M. gong hé ‘work together’, introduced into English by Major Evans Carlson; apparently an abbreviation for gongyè hézuòshè ‘industrial workers cooperative’
• haiku - Japanese ? M. páijù ‘amusement-sentence’
• Han - M. Hàn, name of the dynasty, which has become the normal word for ethnic Chinese
• Hanoi - Vietnamese ? M. hé ‘river’ + nèi ‘inside’
• hanzi - M. hànzì ‘Chinese character’
• hapkido - Korean ? M. hé ‘unite’ + qì ‘chi’ + dào ‘way’
• Ho Chi Minh - Vietnamese ? M. hú zhìmíng ‘lake’ + ‘goal-bright’
• Hong Kong - C. Heunggóng = M. Xianggang ‘fragrant port’
• Huang Ho - M. Huáng Hé ‘yellow river’; hé was the original name of the river, but became generalized to refer to any river, so that an adjective was needed
• Hunan - M. Húnán ‘lake-south’, the lake being Dòngtíng
• I Ching - M. yìjing ‘change-classic’
• Japan - Malay ? M. Rìben ‘sun-origin’
• judo - Japanese judo ? M. róudào ‘gentle way’
• jujitsu - Japanese jujutsu ? M. róushù ‘gentle art’
• kanji - Japanese ? M. hànzì ‘Chinese character’
• kendo - Japanese kendo ? M. jiàndào ‘sword-way’
• ketchup - Malay kecap ‘vinegary sauce’ ? Amoy ketsiap ‘fish brine’; 1st character uncertain; 2nd is M. zhi ‘juice’
• kirin - Japanese ? M. qílín; OED defines as ‘male + female’
• koan - Japanese koan ? M. gong àn ‘fair, public’ + ‘case, plan’; said to be an abbreviation for gongfu àndú ‘public (legal) documents’— something like ‘case law’
• kowtow - M. kòutóu ‘knock head’
• kumquat - C. gam1 gwat1 = M. jinjú ‘golden orange’
• kung fu - C. gongfu ‘work, service’ = ‘merit’ + ‘man’
• kung pao - C. gongbao ‘palace-defend’ (a military title-- specifically, the guardian of a prince)
• Kuomintang - C. Guómíndang ‘nation-people-party’
• Kyoto - Japanese Kyoto ? M. jingdu ‘capital-capital’
• Lao Tze - M. lao ‘old’ + zi ‘son’
• li (measure) - M. li
• loquat - C. luh kwat = M. lújú ‘reed orange’
• lose face - loan-translation of diu lian ‘lose face’
• lychee - M. lìzhi ‘litchi’ + ‘branch’
• mahjongg - ma chiung = M. májiang ‘hemp general’; the ‘sparrow’ referred to in OED and AHD seems to be a confusion with a C. alternate name
• manga - Japanese ? M. mànhuà ‘unrestricted picture’
• Mao - M. máo ‘fur, wool’ (his given name Zédong is ‘radiance’ + ‘east’)
• Meiji - Japanese ? M. míngzhì ‘bright-rule’
• Ming - M. míng ‘bright’
• miso - Japanese ? M. wèiceng ‘taste-noisy’
• Mulan - M. mùlán ‘magnolia’ = ‘wood-orchid’
• nihao - M. nihao ‘hello’ = ‘you’ + ‘good’
• ninja - Japanese ? M. renzhe ‘endure-person’
• oolong - M. wulóng ‘black dragon’
• pekoe - Amoy pak-ho = M. báiháo ‘white down’
• Peking - C. Bakging ? M. Beijing ‘northern capital’
• pinyin - M. pinyin ‘join sound’
• qigong - M. qìgong ‘breath work’
• ricksha - Japanese jinrikisha ? M. rénlìche ‘man-power-vehicle’
• Ranma - Japanese ? M. luànma ‘wild horse’
• ronin - Japanese ronin ? M. làngrén ‘wave man’, metaphorically, ‘wanderer’
• samisen - Japanese shamisen ? M. san + wèi + xiàn ‘three taste cord’ (perhaps wèi is used as a measure word here); earlier English cites like shamshin (1616) come directly from the M. sanxián ‘three-string’
• sampan - M. sanban ‘three planks’; the modern M. term however is shanban
• sensei - Japanese ‘master, teacher’ ? M. xiansheng ‘gentleman, ancestor’ = ‘first’ + ‘born’
• seppuku - Japanese ? M. qiefù ‘cut belly’
• Shanghai - M. Shànghai ‘‘upper sea’
• Shantung - M. Shandong ‘mountain-east’, these being the Taihang mountains
• Shaolin - M. shaolín ‘young forest’
• shar-pei - M. shapí ‘sandy skin’
• shihtzu - M. shezi gou ‘lion dog’
• Shinto - Japanese Shinto ? shéndào ‘god way’
• shogun - Japanese shogun ? jiangjun ‘general’ = ‘use’ + ‘army’
• shunga - Japanese ? M. chunhuà ‘spring picture’
• silk - Old English sioluc. From here the journey is tortuous, perhaps a little too much so: Old Slavonic šelku ? Greek Seres ‘Orientals’, i.e. perhaps ‘the silk people’ ? some Altaic precursor of Mongolian sirkek ? Old Chinese si-, M. si
• souchong - C. siu chung = M. xiaozhong ‘small sort’. Lapsang is a proper name
• soy - Japanese shoyu ? M. jiàngyóu ‘paste’ + ‘oil’
• Sun Yat Sen - C. ? M. Sun Yìxian ? sun ‘grandchild’ + ‘excellent immortal’
• Szechwan - Sìchuan ‘four rivers’, short for chuanxiá sì lù ‘rivers-gorges four provinces’
• tae kwon do - Korean ‘kick-punch-way’ ? M. táiquándào ‘trample-punch-way’
• Tai Chi (Chuan) - tàijíquán ‘too extreme fist’
• taikonaut - M. tàikong ‘heaven’
• Taiwan - Táiwan ‘platform bay’, though probably ‘platform’ is only used for its sound, to represent a native non-Chinese name
• Tang - M. Táng, name of the dynasty
• Tao - M. dào ‘way’
• tea - Amoy te = M. chá
• Tienanmen - M. tian’anmén ‘heaven-calm-gate’
• tofu - Japanese tofu ? M. dòufu ‘beans-rotten’
• Tokyo - Japanese Tokyo ? M. Dongjing ‘eastern capital’; Tonkin has the same etymology, borrowed into Vietnamese
• tong - C. tong = M. táng ‘meeting hall’
• tycoon - Japanese taikun ? dàjun ‘great monarch’
• typhoon - C. tai fung = M. dafeng ‘great wind’
• wok - C. = M. guo
• won ton - C. wan tan = M. húntún ‘irregular pasta’
• Wong - C. wong ? M. wáng ‘king’
• Xinhua (News Agency) - M. xinhuá ‘new’ + ‘flowery, China’
• yang - M. yáng ‘sun, bright, masculine’
• Yangtze - M. Yángzi Jiang ‘raise’ + diminutive + ‘large river’, a local name for the lower reaches; the M. for the entire river is Cháng Jiang ‘long-river’; jiang was the original name of the river, but this was generalized to all rivers, necessitating a disambiguating adjective
• yen (money) - Japanese ? M. yuán ‘round’
• yen (yearning) - C. yan = M. yin ‘addiction’
• yin - M. yin ‘moon, dark, feminine’
• yuan (money) - M. yuán ‘round’
• zaibatsu - Japanese ? M. cái ‘wealth’ + fá ‘wealthy person or family’
• Zen - Japanese ? M. chán(na) ‘meditation’ ? Sanskrit dhyana
• Zhou Enlai - M. zhou ‘circle’, a common surname; Enlái is ‘favor-comes’

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