Japanese words of Portuguese origin - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Many Japanese words of Portuguese origin entered the Japanese language

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

when Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

Jesuit priests introduced Christian ideas, Western science, technology and new products to the Japanese during the Muromachi period

Muromachi period

The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...

(15-16th century).

The Portuguese

Portuguese Empire

The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...

were the first Europeans to reach Japan and the first to establish direct trade between Japan and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, in 1542. During the sixteenth and seventeenth century, Portuguese Jesuits had undertaken a great work of Catechism, that ended only with religious persecution in the early Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

(Tokugawa Shogunate). The Portuguese were the first to translate the Japanese to a Western language, in the Nippo Jisho

Nippo Jisho

The Nippo Jisho or Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam was a Japanese to Portuguese dictionary published in Nagasaki, Japan in 1603. It contains entries for 32,293 Japanese words in Portuguese. Only four copies of the original 1603 edition exist...

dictionary or "Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam" compiled by Portuguese Jesuit João Rodrigues, and published in Nagasaki in 1603, who also wrote a grammar "Arte da Lingoa de Iapam

Arte da Lingoa de Iapam

is an early 17th century Portuguese grammar of the Japanese language. It was compiled by João Rodrigues, a Portuguese missionary of the Society of Jesus. It is the oldest complete Japanese grammar, and is a valuable reference for late Late Middle Japanese.-Background:Christian missionary work in...

" . The dictionary of Japanese - Portuguese explained 32,000 Japanese words translated into Portuguese. Most of these words refer to the products and customs that first came to Japan via the Portuguese traders.

List of loanwords

Many of the first words which were introduced and entered the Japanese language from Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

and Dutch

Japanese words of Dutch origin

Japanese words of Dutch origin started to develop when the Dutch East India Company initiated trading in Japan from the factory of Hirado in 1609...

are written in kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

or hiragana

Hiragana

is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...

, rather than katakana

Katakana

is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...

, which is the more common way to write loanwords in Japanese in modern times. Kanji versions of the words are ateji

Ateji

In modern Japanese, primarily refers to kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words, without regard to the meaning of the underlying characters. This is analogous to man'yōgana in pre-modern Japanese...

, characters that are "fitted" or "applied" to the words by the Japanese, based on either the pronunciation or the meaning of the word. One of these examples is the word "Chá", meaning tea and so appreciated by the British; it was introduced to them by the Portuguese.

The sign † shows that the word is a historical, extinct one.

Japanese Rōmaji	Japanese Script	Japanese Meaning	Pre-modern Portuguese	Modern Portuguese	English	Notes
arukōru	アルコール	alcohol	alcool	álcool	alcohol	originally from Arabic, term entered Japanese via the West, possibly from Dutch
† bateren	伴天連 / 破天連	a missionary priest (mainly from Jesuit)	padre	padre	priest	used in early Christianity Kirishitan , from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman...
battera	ばってら	kind of sushi Sushi is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...	bateira	barco	boat	named after its shape
bīdama	ビー玉	marbles (spheric-shaped)	----	berlindes, bola-de-gude, bolinha-de-gude	----	abbrev. of bīdoro + tama (Japanese: 'ball'). cf. bīdoro
bīdoro	ビードロ	a certain traditional type of glass artifact	vidro	vidro	glass
birōdo	ビロード / 天鵞絨	velvet	veludo	veludo	velvet	berubetto is also used today.
bōro	ボーロ / ぼうろ	a kind of biscuit (tiny bead-like)	bolo	bolo	cake	keiki (from english) is most used today.
botan	ボタン / 釦 / 鈕	button	botão	botão	button
buranko	ブランコ	swing	balancé, baloiço	baloiço	swing
charumera	チャルメラ	small double-reed wind instrument	charamela	charamela (caramelo, "caramel", is cognate)	shawm Shawm The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,... (cf. the cognate chalumeau Chalumeau This article is about the historical musical instrument. For the register on the clarinet that is named for this instrument, see Clarinet#Range.... )	formerly played by Japanese noodle vendors
chokki	チョッキ	waistcoat (UK); vest (U.S.); Jacket	jaque	colete, jaqueta	waistcoat (UK); vest (U.S.); Jacket	Besuto (from English) is common today.
furasuko	フラスコ	flask	frasco	frasco	flask
iesu or iezusu	イエス, イエズス	Jesus	Jesu	Jesus	Jesus	More possibly of Dutch origin, as in Dutch Jezus, j is pronounced like the English y. Can also mean "yes" (from English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... )
igirisu	イギリス / 英吉利	the United Kingdom	inglez	inglês	English (adj); Englishman
† iruman	イルマン / 入満 / 伊留満 / 由婁漫	missionary next in line to become a priest	irmão	irmão	brother	used in early Christianity Kirishitan , from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman...
jōro	じょうろ / 如雨露	watering can	jarro	jarro	jug, watering can	"possibly from Portuguese" (Kōjien Kojien The is a single-volume Japanese dictionary first published by Iwanami Shoten in 1955. Many native speakers of Japanese regard the Kōjien as the most authoritative dictionary, and newspaper editorials frequently cite its definitions... dictionary)
juban/jiban	じゅばん / 襦袢	underwear for kimono Kimono The is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women and children. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" , has come to denote these full-length robes... s	jibão	roupa íntima	underwear	French form jupon led to zubon (trousers).
kanakin/kanekin	金巾 / かなきん / かねきん	shirting, percale Percale Percale or Percalcos is a closely woven plain-weave fabric often used for bed covers.The term describes the weave of the fabric, not its content, so percale could be a blend of 50% cotton and 50% polyester, 100% cotton, or a blend of other fabrics in any ratio...	canequim	canequim	unbleached muslin/calico	a textile business jargon
† kandeya	カンデヤ	oil lamp	candeia, candela	vela, candeia	candle	extinct, as oil lamps went obsolete. Kantera from Dutch kandelaar was also used.
† kapitan	甲比丹 / 甲必丹	captain (of ships from Europe in The Age of Discovery)	capitão	capitão	captain	extinct word - the French form kyaputen from capitaine [ka.pi.tɛn] is now used. Note the palatalized /kja/ syllable in both French and Japanese.
kappa	合羽	raincoat	capa	capa (de chuva)	raincoat, coat	reinkōto (from English) is prevalent nowadays.
karuta Karuta is a Japanese card game.The basic idea of any karuta game is to be able to quickly determine which card out of an array of cards is required and then to grab the card before it is grabbed by an opponent. There are various types of cards which can be used to play karuta...	かるた / 歌留多	karuta cards	cartas (de jogar)	cartas (de jogar)	(playing) cards	a traditional type of playing cards, largely different from the modern worldwide ones
kasutera, kasutēra, kasuteira	カステラ	Kind of sponge cake Sponge cake Sponge cake is a cake based on flour , sugar, and eggs, sometimes leavened with baking powder which has a firm, yet well aerated structure, similar to a sea sponge. A sponge cake may be produced by either the batter method, or the foam method. Typicially the batter method in the U.S. is known as a...	(Pão de) Castella	(Pão de) Castela	(Bread of) Castile	Another theory cites Portuguese castelo (castle).
† kirishitan Kirishitan , from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman...	キリシタン / 切支丹 / 吉利支丹 (Also written in the more negative forms 鬼理死丹 and 切死丹 after Christianity Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings... was banned by the Tokugawa Shogunate Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...	Christian people in 16-17th cent. (who were severely persecuted by the Shogunate)	christão	cristão	Christian	Today's Christian people are Kurisuchan (from English).
kirisuto	キリスト / 基督	Christ Christ Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...	Christo	Cristo	Christ
kompeitō Kompeito Kompeito, also spelled as konpeito is a Japanese candy.-History:The word "konpeito" comes from the Portuguese word confeito, which means a sugar candy. This technique for producing candy was introduced to Japan in the early 16th century by Portuguese traders. The infrastructure and refining...	金米糖 / 金平糖 / 金餅糖	Kind of star-shaped candy	confeito	confeito	confection, candies	(related to confetti Confetti Confetti is a multitude of pieces of paper, mylar or metallic material which is usually thrown at parades and celebrations, especially weddings . Confetti is made in a variety of colors, and commercially available confetti is available in imaginative shapes... )
koppu	コップ	cup	copo	copo	cup
† kurusu	クルス	cross	cruz	cruz	cross	used in early Christianity Kirishitan , from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman... , now kurosu from English
kyarameru / karameru	キャラメル / カラメル	caramel	caramelo	caramelo	caramel
manto	マント	cloak	manto	manto	Cloak
marumero	マルメロ	quince	marmelo	marmelo	quince
meriyasu	メリヤス / 莫大小	a kind of knit textile	medias	meias	hosiery, knitting
mīra	ミイラ / 木乃伊	mummy	mirra	mirra	myrrh Myrrh Myrrh is the aromatic oleoresin of a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus Commiphora, which grow in dry, stony soil. An oleoresin is a natural blend of an essential oil and a resin. Myrrh resin is a natural gum....	Originally, mummies embalmed using myrrh.
oranda	オランダ / 和蘭(陀) / 阿蘭陀	The Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... , Holland	Hollanda	Holanda	The Netherlands, Holland
pan	パン	bread	pão	pão	bread	Often wrongly connected to the Spanish pan or the French pain, both with the same meaning. The word was introduced into Japan by Portuguese missionaries.
pin kara kiri made	ピンからキリまで	running the whole gamut, jumble of wheat and tares	(pinta, cruz)	(pinta, cruz)	(dot, cross)	literally 'from pin to kiri
rasha	ラシャ / 羅紗	a kind of wool woven textile	raxa	feltro	felt Felt Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibres. While some types of felt are very soft, some are tough enough to form construction materials. Felt can be of any colour, and made into any shape or size....
rozario	ロザリオ	rosary Rosary The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...	rosario	rosário	rosary
† sabato	サバト	Sabbath	sábado	sábado	Sabbath, Saturday	used in early Christianity Kirishitan , from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman... (?)
saboten	サボテン / 仙人掌	cactus	sabão	sabão	soap	The derivation is said to come from the soap-like feature of its juice, although there are controversies. cf. shabon
sarasa	更紗	chintz Chintz Chintz is glazed calico cloth printed with flowers and other patterns in different colours. Unglazed calico is called "cretonne". The word Calico is derived from the name of the Indian city Calicut to which it had a manufacturing association.-History:Chintz was originally a woodblock printed,...	saraça		chintz
shabon	シャボン	(soap)	sabão	sabão	soap	usually seen in shabon-dama ('soap bubbles') in modern Japanese
subeta	スベタ	(an insulting word for women)	espada	espada	sword	Probably from playing cards, change history of meaning is uncertain.
tabako	タバコ / 煙草	tobacco, cigarette	tabaco	tabaco	tobacco, cigarette
totan	トタン / 塗炭	galvanized sheet iron (e.g. corrugated roofing material)	tutanaga		Corrugated galvanised iron Corrugated galvanised iron Corrugated galvanised iron is a building material composed of sheets of hot-dip galvanised mild steel, cold-rolled to produce a linear corrugated pattern in them...
tempura Tempura ], is a Japanese dish of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried.-Batter:A light batter is made of cold water and soft wheat flour . Eggs, baking soda or baking powder, starch, oil, and/or spices may also be added...	天麩羅 / 天婦羅	deep-fried seafood/vegetables	tempero, temperar;tempora	tempero, temperar; tempora	seasoning, to season; times of abstinence from meat
zabon	ざぼん / 朱欒 / 香欒	shaddock Pomelo The pomelo is a citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia. It is usually pale green to yellow when ripe, with sweet white flesh and very thick albedo . It is the largest citrus fruit, 15–25 cm in diameter, and usually weighing 1–2 kg...	zamboa	zamboa	shaddock

Arigatō

It is often suggested that the Japanese word arigatō derives from the Portuguese obrigado, both of which mean "Thank you," but this is demonstrably false. The Japanese phrase arigatō is a shortened form of arigatō gozaimasu, meaning "Thank you". This is a form of an adjective, arigatai, for which written records exist dating back to the Man'yōshū, well before Japanese contact with Portugal.

The full derivation is arigatō < arigatau < arigataku < arigatashi < ari + katashi. The medial -k- drops out from -aku- resulting in /au/. This then becomes /oː/ via regular phonological rules. Ari is a verb meaning "to be" and katashi is an adjective meaning "difficult". The original meaning of "arigatashi" was "difficult to be", i.e. "rare" and thus "special".
This derivation tries to stem the word to its structural meanings and does not consider the current word's sentimental development and appreciated meaning.

Other references

Japanese words of Portuguese origin

List of loanwords

Arigatō

Other references

See also