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Japan's exports now include vocab
How everyone is speaking at least a little Japanese
American sailors may have found 1860s streets in Japan to be hunky dory indeed.If you're going to learn Japanese, you may be surprised by how much you already know.
More and more Japanese words are entering the Oxford Dictionary of English, and many 'English' words are coming straight from Japan.
The latest dictionaries additions all refer to developments of social behaviour unique to Japan. Hikikomori -- referring to people who avoid social contact -- joins along with karoshi (death from overwork) and otaku (an obssessed fan).
Karate and sumo are now common English words.A good time on hunky street
Karate and sumo are now common English words.
While those may sound distinctly Japanese, others already in common use include tycoon, soy and honcho. Even the term hunky-dory purportedly has its origins in Japan.
After Commodore Perry had forced Japan to open to Western trade in the early 1850s, the phrase came into use in the 1860s, becoming known through an 1862 American song.
But we only discovered how "dory" got stuck to the common word "hunkey" (fit and healthy) when John Russell Bartlett suggested the Japanese influence in the 4th edition of the "Dictionary of Americanisms" in 1877.
The entry read: Hunkidori. Superlatively good. Said to be a word introduced by Japanese Tommy and to be (or to be derived from) the name of a street, or bazaar, in Yeddo [a.k.a. Tokyo].
With frequent visits by U.S. sailors and tradesmen in the 1850s and 1860s, many would have wandered on to honcho-dori (main street) for a good time, leading to the visitors creating the new term.
Tofugu has created a list of Japanese words in use in English, including kamikaze, karaoke and tsunami.
