List of English words of Chinese origin

Words of Chinese origin have entered the English language

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...

and many European languages. Most of these were loanwords from Chinese itself, a term covering those members of the Chinese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. However, Chinese words have also entered indirectly via other languages, particularly Korean

Korean language

Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...

, Japanese

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...

and Vietnamese

Vietnamese language

Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...

, that have all used Chinese character

Chinese character

Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...

s at some point and contain a large number of Chinese loanword

Loanword

A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...

Different sources of loan words

English words with Chinese origin usually have different characteristics depending how the words were spread to the West. Despite the increasingly widespread use of Mandarin among Chinese people, English words that are based on Mandarin are relatively scarce.

Some words spread to the West ....

via the silk road
Silk Road
The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...

, e.g. silk. These have heavy influence from countries along the silk road.
via the missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

who lived in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. These have heavy Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

influence due the 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...

and Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

missionaries.
via the sinologist
Sinology
Sinology in general use is the study of China and things related to China, but, especially in the American academic context, refers more strictly to the study of classical language and literature, and the philological approach...

s who lived in China. These have heavy French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

influence due to the long history of French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

involvement in Sinology.
via the maritime
Shipping
Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...

trade route, e.g. tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

, Amoy
Xiamen
Xiamen , also known as Amoy , is a major city on the southeast coast of the People's Republic of China. It is administered as a sub-provincial city of Fujian province with an area of and population of 3.53 million...

, cumshaw etc. These have heavy influence from the Amoy dialect
Min Nan
The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....

in southern seaports.
via the early immigrants to the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

in the gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...

era, e.g. chop suey
Chop suey
Chop suey is a Chinese dish consisting of meat and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery and bound in a starch-thickened sauce...

. These have heavy influence from the Toisan dialect.
via the multi-national colonization of Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

. These have influence from many European countries, also Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.
via the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

colonisation of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, e.g. cheongsam
Qipao
The cheongsam is a body-hugging one-piece Chinese dress for women; the male version is the changshan. It is known in Mandarin Chinese as the qípáo Wade-Giles ch'i-p'ao, and is also known in English as a mandarin gown...

. These have heavy influence from Cantonese.
via modern international communication especially after the 1970s when the People's Republic of China opened its bamboo curtain
Bamboo curtain
Bamboo curtain can mean:* Literally, a type of beaded curtain made from bamboo* Figuratively, the Bamboo Curtain, the Asian equivalent of the Iron Curtain...

to let her people emigrate to various countries, e.g. wushu, feng shui
Feng shui
Feng shui ' is a Chinese system of geomancy believed to use the laws of both Heaven and Earth to help one improve life by receiving positive qi. The original designation for the discipline is Kan Yu ....

etc. These have heavy influence from Mandarin.
via Japanese and (possibly) Korean and Vietnamese. These languages have borrowed large amounts of Chinese vocabulary in the past, written in the form of Chinese characters. The pronunciation of such loanwords is not based directly on Chinese, but on the local pronunciation of Chinese loanwords in these languages, known as Sino-Japanese, Sino-Korean, and Sino-Vietnamese. In addition, the individual characters were extensively used as building blocks for local neologisms with no counterpart in the original Chinese, resulting in words whose relationship to the Chinese language is similar to the relationship between new Latinate words (particularly those that form a large part of the international scientific vocabulary
International Scientific Vocabulary
International scientific vocabulary comprises scientific and specialized words whose language of origin may or may not be certain, but which are in current use in several modern languages. The name "International Scientific Vocabulary" was first used by Philip Gove in Webster’s Third New...

) and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

. Such words are excluded from the list.

Though all these following terms originated from China, the spelling of the English words depends on which language the transliteration

Transliteration

Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

s came from.

B

Brainwashing

Mind control

Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...

: A direct translation from Chinese 洗脑 xǐ nǎo (where 洗 literally means "wash", while 脑 means "brain", hence brainwash), a term and psychological concept first used by the People's Volunteer Army

People's Volunteer Army

The Chinese People's Volunteer Army was the armed forces deployed by the People's Republic of China during the Korean War. Although all units in the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army belonged to the People's Liberation Army , the People's Volunteer Army was separately constituted in order to...

during the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

. It may refer to a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas; or persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship. The term "brainwashing" came into the mainstream English language after Western media sources first utilized the term to describe the attitudes of POWs

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

returning from the Korean War.
Bok choy : (Cantonese) 白菜 (baakchoi), a Chinese cabbage: literally 'white vegetable'

C

Catsup : see Ketchup

Ketchup

Ketchup is a sweet-and-tangy condiment typically made from tomatoes, vinegar, sugar or high-fructose corn syrup and an assortment of...

Char : colloquial English word for 'tea', originally from Chinese 茶 (Cantonese/Mandarin chá; Vietnamese trà or chè).
Cheongsam : from Cantonese 長衫 (cheungsaam), lit. long clothes.
Chi

In traditional Chinese culture, qì is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts...

: or "qi", energy of an object or person, from Chinese Mandarin 氣 (air or spirit). (This word is correctly represented in Wade-Giles romanization by "ch'i," but the rough breathing mark (replaced by an apostrophe in most texts) has disappeared in colloquial English.)
China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

: via Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

Sina, Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

چین Cin, and Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

चीन Chinas

Chinas

The Chinas or Chīnaḥ are a people mentioned in ancient Indian literature from the first millennium BC, such as the Mahabharata, Laws of Manu, as well the Puranic literature...

; ultimately from the name of the Ch'in Dynasty 秦
Chop chop : from Cantonese chuk chuk 速速, lit. hurry, urgent
Chopsticks : from Chinese Pidgin English chop chop.
Chop suey

Chop suey

Chop suey is a Chinese dish consisting of meat and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery and bound in a starch-thickened sauce...

: from Cantonese 雜碎 (tzapseui), lit. mixed pieces
Chow : from Chinese Pidgin English chowchow which means food, perhaps based on Cantonese 炒, lit. stir fry (cooking)
Chow chow

Chow Chow

Chow chow is a breed of dog that was developed in China, where it is referred to as Songshi Quan , which literally means "puffy-lion dog".- Appearance :...

: any of a breed of heavy-coated blocky dogs of Chinese origin
Chow mein

Chow mein

Chow mein is a Chinese term for a dish of stir-fried noodles, of which there are many varieties.-Etymology:...

: from Taishanese 炒麵 (chau meing), lit. stir fried noodle, when the first Chinese immigrants, from Taishan

Taishan

Taishan is a coastal county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. The city is part of the Greater Taishan Region....

came to the United States.
Confucianism

Confucianism

Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...

: from Confucius

Confucius

Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....

, Latinized form of 孔夫子 (kǒng fūzǐ) 'Master Kong'
Cumshaw : from Amoy 感謝, feeling gratitude

F

Fan-tan

Fan-Tan

Fan-Tan, or fantan is a form of gambling game long played in China. It has similarities to roulette.-History:Fan-tan is no longer as popular as it once was, having been replaced by modern casino games, and other traditional Chinese games such as Mah Jong and Pai Gow. However, it was once a...

: from Cantonese 番攤 (fāntān), lit. (take) turns scattering
Feng shui

Feng shui

Feng shui ' is a Chinese system of geomancy believed to use the laws of both Heaven and Earth to help one improve life by receiving positive qi. The original designation for the discipline is Kan Yu ....

: from feng, wind and shui, water 風水; (slang) Denotes an object or scene is aesthetically balanced (generally used in construction or design)
Foo dog

Foo Dog

Foo Dog, Fu Dog or Lion Dog may refer to:In figurines or statues:*Chinese guardian lions *Komainu, Japanese statues*Shisa, Okinawan statuesIn dog breeds, which resemble the figurines:...

: from Mandarin 佛 fó Buddha (from their use as guardians of Buddhist temples)

G

Ginkgo

Ginkgo , also spelled gingko and known as the Maidenhair Tree, is a unique species of tree with no close living relatives...

: mistransliteration of 銀杏 (ginkyō or ginnan) in Japanese
Ginseng

Ginseng

Ginseng is any one of eleven species of slow-growing perennial plants with fleshy roots, belonging to the genus Panax of the family Araliaceae....

: from Hokkien

Hokkien

Hokkien is a Hokkien word corresponding to Standard Chinese "Fujian". It may refer to:* Hokkien dialect, a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken in Southern Fujian , Taiwan, South-east Asia, and elsewhere....

Chinese 人參 jîn-sim, rendered in Mandarin as renshen, name of the plant. Some say the word came via Japanese (same kanji), although 人参 now means 'carrot' in Japanese; ginseng is 朝鮮人参 ('Korean carrot').
Go

Go (board game)

Go , is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago...

: From the Japanese name igo 囲碁 of the Chinese board game. Chinese 围棋, Mandarin: Weiqi

Go (board game)

Go , is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago...

.
Gung-ho

Gung-ho

Gung ho is a slang term in American English used to mean "enthusiastic" or "dedicated" originally used in Marine slang.It is an anglicised pronunciation of "gōng hé" , the shortened version and slogan of the "gōngyè hézuòshè" or Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, which was abbreviated as INDUSCO in...

: from Mandarin 工合, short for 工業合作社
Gyoza : Japanese ギョーザ, gairaigo

Gairaigo

Gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word", and indicates a transliteration into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese, primarily from English. Japanese also has a large number of loan words from...

from Chinese 餃子 (Mandarin: Jiaozi

Jiaozi

Jiǎozi 餃子 or 饺子 , bánh bột luộc , gyōza , Mo:Mo: or Momocha म:म: or ममचा , or pot sticker is a Chinese dumpling widely spread to Japan, Eastern and Western Asia.Jiaozi typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into...

), stuffed dumpling. Gyoza in English refers to the fried dumpling style (as opposed to water boiled).

K

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...

: Japanese name for Chinese characters: 漢字, lit. Chinese characters. Chinese: Hàn zì.
Kaolin : from 高嶺, lit. high mountain peak, the name of a village or suburb of Jingde Town

Jingdezhen

Jingdezhen , is a prefecture-level city, previously a town, in Jiangxi Province, China, with a total population of 1,554,000 . It is known as the "Porcelain Capital" because it has been producing quality pottery for 1700 years. The city has a well-documented history that stretches back over 2000...

, in Jiangxi Province, that was the site of a mine from which kaolin clay (高嶺土 gāo lǐng tǔ) was taken to make the fine porcelain produced in Jingde.
Keemun : kind of tea, 祁門 Mandarin qímén
Ketchup

Ketchup

Ketchup is a sweet-and-tangy condiment typically made from tomatoes, vinegar, sugar or high-fructose corn syrup and an assortment of...

: possibly from Cantonese or Amoy 茄汁, lit. tomato sauce/juice
Koan : Japanese 公案 kōan, from Chinese 公案 (Mandarin gōng'àn), lit. public record
Kowtow

Kowtow

Kowtow is the act of deep respect shown by kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground. An alternative Chinese term is ketou, however the meaning is somewhat altered: kòu originally meant "knock with reverence", whereas kē has the general meaning of "touch upon ".In Han...

: from Cantonese 叩頭 (Mandarin, kòu tóu) , lit. knock head
Kumquat

Kumquat

Cumquats or kumquats are a group of small fruit-bearing trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, either forming the genus Fortunella, or placed within Citrus sensu lato...

or cumquat: from Cantonese name of the fruit 柑橘 (Gamgwat)
Kung fu : the English term to collectively describe Chinese martial arts; from Cantonese 功夫 (Gongfu), lit. efforts

L

Lo mein

Lo mein is a Chinese dish with wheat flour noodles. It often contains vegetables and some type of meat or seafood, usually beef, chicken, pork, shrimp or wontons.-Etymology:...

: from Cantonese 撈麵 (lòu-mihn), literally scooped noodle
Longan

Longan

Dimocarpus longan, commonly known as the longan, is a tropical tree native to South and Southeast Asia, in the Indomalaya ecozone known for its edible fruit.-Vernacular names:The fruit is known as longan or longyan in English...

: from Cantonese 龍眼, name of the fruit, literally "Dragon's eye"
Loquat

Loquat

The loquat , Eriobotrya japonica, is a fruit tree in the family Rosaceae, indigenous to southeastern China. It was formerly thought to be closely related to the genus Mespilus, and is still sometimes known as the Japanese medlar...

: from Cantonese 蘆橘, old name of the fruit
Lychee

Lychee

The lychee is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. It is a tropical and subtropical fruit tree native to Southern China and Southeast Asia, and now cultivated in many parts of the world...

: from Cantonese 荔枝 (laitzi), name of the fruit

M

Mao-tai or moutai: from Mandarin 茅台酒 (máotái jiǔ), liquor from Maotai (Guizhou

Guizhou

' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...

province)
Mahjong

Mahjong

Mahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players...

: from Mandarin 麻將 (ma jiang), lit. the mahjong game
Mu shu (pork) : from Mandarin 木須 (mùxū), lit. wood shredded

N

Nankeen: Chinese, from Chinese, a durable cotton, buff-colored cloth originally made in 南京 (Nán Jīng).

Nunchaku

Nunchaku

is a traditional Okinawan weapon consisting of two sticks connected at their ends with a short chain or rope.-Etymology:The Japanese word nunchaku is the Kun'yomi reading of the Kanji term for a traditional Chinese two section staff....

: Okinawan Japanese, from Min (Taiwan/Fujian) 雙節棍, lit. double jointed sticks

P

Paigow : from Cantonese 排九, a gambling game
Pekin

Pekin

-United States:*Pekin, Illinois*Pekin, Indiana*Pekin, Iowa*Pekin, Kentucky, now Paducah, Kentucky*Pekin, Maryland*Pekin Township, Michigan*Pekin, New York, hamlet in town of Cambria, New York*Pekin, North Dakota-Animals:*Red-billed Leiothrix, or Pekin Robin...

: from southern Mandarin 北京, a patterned silk cloth
Pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: from Mandarin 拼音, lit. put together sounds
Pekoe

Orange Pekoe

Orange pekoe , also spelled "pecco" is a term used in the Western tea trade to describe a particular genre of black teas . Despite a purported Chinese origin, these grading terms are typically used for teas from Sri Lanka, India and countries other than China; they are not generally known within...

: from Amoy 白毫, lit. white downy hair

Q

: from Mandarin 氣 (qì), air
Qipao

Qipao

The cheongsam is a body-hugging one-piece Chinese dress for women; the male version is the changshan. It is known in Mandarin Chinese as the qípáo Wade-Giles ch'i-p'ao, and is also known in English as a mandarin gown...

: from 旗袍 (qípáo), female traditional Chinese clothing (male version: cheongsam)

R

Ramen

is a Japanese noodle dish. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat- or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as , , kamaboko, green onions, and occasionally corn...

: Japanese ラーメン, gairaigo

Gairaigo

, from Chinese 拉麵 (Lamian

Lamian

Lamian is a type of hand-made or hand-pulled Chinese noodle. It is also the name of the dishes that use these noodles.-Etymology and preparation:...

) lit. pulled noodle. Ramen refers to a particular style flavored to Japanese taste and is somewhat different from Chinese lamian.

S

Sampan

A sampan is a relatively flat bottomed Chinese wooden boat from long. Some sampans include a small shelter on board, and may be used as a permanent habitation on inland waters. Sampans are generally used for transportation in coastal areas or rivers, and are often used as traditional fishing boats...

: from Cantonese 舢舨, the name of such vessel.
shanghai : from Chinese city Shanghai, to put someone aboard a ship by trickery or intoxication; to put someone in a bad situation or press someone into work by trickery. From an old practice of using this method to acquire sailors for voyages to Shanghai.
shantung: from Mandarin 山東，"shantung" (or sometimes "Shantung") is a wild silk

Wild silk

Wild silks have been known and used in many countries from early times, although the scale of production is far smaller than that from cultivated silkworms.-Background:...

fabric made from the silk of wild silkworms and is usually undyed.
Shaolin

Shaolin

The shào in "Shaolin" refers to "Mount Shaoshi", a mountain in the Songshan mountain range and lín means "forest". With sì , the name literally means "monastery/temple in the woods of Mount Shaoshi"....

: from Mandarin 少林, One of the most important Kungfu clans.
Shar Pei

Shar Pei

The Shar Pei, or Chinese Shar-Pei, is a breed of dog known for its distinctive features of deep wrinkles and a blue-black tongue. The breed comes from China. The name translates to "sand skin" and refers to the texture of its short, rough coat...

: from Cantonese 沙皮, lit. sand skin.
Shih Tzu

Shih Tzu

The Shih Tzu is a breed of dog weighing with long silky hair. The breed originated in China and is among the earliest breeds. Shih Tzu were officially recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1969...

: from Mandarin 獅子狗, lit. Chinese lion dog
Shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

: Japanese 将軍, from Chinese 將軍, lit. general (of) military. The full title in Japanese was Seii Taishōgun (征夷大将軍), "generalissimo who overcomes the barbarians"
Sifu

Sifu

Shifu is the identical pronunciation of two Chinese terms for a master. The character 師 means “teacher”. The meaning of 傅 is “tutor”, and of 父, “father”. Both characters are read fu with the same tones in Cantonese and Mandarin, creating some ambiguity...

: from Cantonese 師傅, (Mandarin shīfu), master.
Silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

: possibly from 'si' 絲, lit. silk
Souchong : from Cantonese 小種茶 (siúchúng ch'ā), lit. small kind tea
Soy

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...

: From Japanese shoyu 醤油, Chinese 醬油, (Mandarin jiàngyóu).

T

Tai Chi

Taiji

Taiji 太極 is a Chinese cosmological term for the "Supreme Ultimate" state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potentiality, contrasted with the Wuji 無極 "Without Ultimate"...

: from Mandarin 太極, "Great Ultimate."
Tai Chi Ch'üan : usually miswritten as Tai Chi Chuan, a form of physical discipline, from Mandarin 太極拳，lit, "(fist =) Great Ultimate Fighting."
Tai-Pan

Tai-Pan

The term tai-pan was originally used to describe a foreign businessman in China or Hong Kong in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Cantonese colloquialism is now used in a more general sense for business executives of any origin...

: from Cantonese 大班 (daaibaan), lit. big rank (similar to big shot)
Tangram

Tangram

The tangram is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape using all seven pieces, which may not overlap...

: from Chinese Tang

Tang

-Chinese name:* Tang Dynasty , Chinese dynasty* Later Tang Dynasty , Turkic dynasty in ancient China* King Tang of Shang , the Shang dynasty ruler, who lived around 1660 BCE...

(唐) + English gram
Tao

Tao

Dao or Tao is a Chinese word meaning 'way', 'path', 'route', or sometimes more loosely, 'doctrine' or 'principle'...

　 and Taoism : (also Dao/Daoism) from Mandarin 道 dào
Tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

: from the Amoy

Amoy

Xiamen, or Amoy, is a city on the southeast coast of China.Amoy may also refer to:*Amoy dialect, a dialect of the Hokkien lects, which are part of the Southern Min group of Chinese languages...

dialect for tea 茶, which is pronounced "tey".
Tofu

Tofu

is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...

: Japanese 豆腐, lit. bean curd, from Chinese 豆腐 (Mandarin dòufu).
Tong

Tong (organization)

The word tong means "hall" or "gathering place". In North America a tong is a type of organization found among Chinese living in the United States and Canada. These organizations are described as secret societies or sworn brotherhoods and are often tied to criminal activity...

: from Cantonese 堂
tung oil

Tung oil

Tung oil or China wood oil is a drying oil obtained by pressing the seed from the nut of the tung tree . As a drying oil, tung oil hardens upon exposure to air. The resulting coating is transparent plastic-like and is exploited in most of its applications, which include wood finishing and the...

: from Chinese 桐油 tóng yóu, oil expressed from nuts of the tong tree
Tycoon : via Japanese 大官, lit. high official; or 大君, lit. great nobleman
Typhoon : via Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

طوفان; ultimately from 颱風 not to be confused with the monster typhon

Typhon

Typhon , also Typhoeus , Typhaon or Typhos was the last son of Gaia, fathered by Tartarus, and the most deadly monster of Greek mythology. He was known as the "Father of all monsters"; his wife Echidna was likewise the "Mother of All Monsters."Typhon was described in pseudo-Apollodorus,...

W

Wok

A wok is a versatile round-bottomed cooking vessel originating in China. It is used especially in East and Southeast Asia.Woks are most often used for stir frying, but can also be used in other Chinese cooking techniques, such as in steaming, deep frying, braising, stewing, smoking, or making soup...

: from Cantonese 鑊
Won ton : from Cantonese 雲吞 , lit. 'cloud swallow' as a description of its shape, similar to Mandarin 餛飩
Wushu : from Mandarin 武術, lit. martial arts
Wuxia

Wuxia

Wuxia is a broad genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists. Although wuxia is traditionally a form of literature, its popularity has caused it to spread to diverse art forms like Chinese opera, manhua , films, television series, and video games...

: from Mandarin 武侠 , lit. martial arts and chivalrous

Y

Yamen

A yamen is any local bureaucrat's, or mandarin's, office and residence of the Chinese Empire. The term has been widely used in China for centuries, but appeared in English during the Qing Dynasty....

: from Mandarin 衙門, lit. court
Yen (craving) : from Cantonese 癮, lit. addiction (to opium)
Yen (Japanese currency) : Japanese 円 en, from Chinese 圓 (Mandarin yuán), lit. round, name of currency unit
Yin Yang : 陰陽 from Mandarin 'Yin' meaning feminine, dark and 'Yang' meaning masculine and bright

Z

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

: Japanese 禅, from Chinese 禪 (Mandarin Chán), originally from Sanskrit ध्यान Dhyāna

Dhyāna in Buddhism

Dhyāna in Sanskrit or jhāna in Pāli can refer to either meditation or meditative states. Equivalent terms are "Chán" in modern Chinese, "Zen" in Japanese, "Seon" in Korean, "Thien" in Vietnamese, and "Samten" in Tibetan....

/ Pali झन jhāna.

External links

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Different sources of loan words

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See also

External links