yurayurateikokuさんの おぼえた日記 - 2023年11月6日(月)

Anime, Manga and Pop Culture (4)

For example, when karaoke first caught on in the U.S., I thought it was a Greek word. But then I found out that it means “empty orchestra” in Japanese.
I thought honcho came from Spanish-like poncho. But it comes from Japanese and means “person in charge” or “squad leader.” You often hear the expression “head honcho,” which is redundant, but pleasantly alliterative. Honcho was used in the Japanese military and was brought here by U.S. servicemen.
My father-in-law used to say “skoshi,” as in “just a skoshi milk in my coffee, please.” I thought skosh was an Irish dialect word, until I found out that it means “just a little bit” in Japanese. It’s another example of a word introduced into English by UU.S. vets after World War II.
Two other words of Japanese origin that have entered the English Language are emoji and ninja. Emoji are the pictograms on your smartphone or computer that are used to convey or highlight an emotion or message. As for ninja, that word is used to mean a person with highly developed skills in a certain field. That’s a bit different from the original Japanese meaning, I understand. It’s also used as a job title in some IT companies.
In the business world, three k-words are widely used: kaizen, kanban and karoshi. We should be on our guard against the last one, which means death by overwork.