Many Japanese words of Portuguese origin entered the Japanese language when PortugueseJesuit priests and traders introduced Christian ideas, Western science, medicine, technology and new products to the Japanese during the Muromachi period (15th and 16th centuries).
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Japan and the first to establish direct trade between Japan and Europe, in 1543. During the 16th and 17th century, Portuguese Jesuits had undertaken a great work of Catechism, that ended only with religious persecution in the early Edo period (Tokugawa Shogunate).
List of direct loanwords
Many of the words which were introduced and entered the Japanese language from Portuguese and Dutch are written in kanji or hiragana, rather than katakana, which is the more common way to write loanwords in Japanese in modern times. Kanji versions of the words are ateji, characters that are "fitted" or "applied" to the words by the Japanese, based on either the pronunciation or the meaning of the word.
The † indicates the word is archaic and no longer in use.
Replaced in modern usage by the terms 教理 (kyōri, literally "teaching" + "reasoning") or 教義 (kyōgi, literally "teaching" + "right conduct; righteousness; justice; morality").
Extinct. Kantera from Dutch kandelaar was also used. Replaced in modern usage by the terms 灯火 (tōka, literally "lamp" + "fire, flame") or ランプ (ranpu, from Dutch lamp).
† kapitan
甲比丹 / 甲必丹
captain (of ships from Europe in The Age of Discovery)
capitão
capitão
captain
Extinct. Replaced in modern usage by the terms 船長 (senchō, literally "ship" + "leader") or the English borrowing キャプテン (kyaputen).
Theories cite Portuguese castelo (castle) or the region of Castile (Castela in Portuguese). The cake itself may originally derive from bizcocho, a Spanish kind of biscotti.
Christian people in 16th and 17th centuries (who were severely persecuted by the Shogunate)
christão
cristão
Christian
Replaced in modern usage by the terms キリスト教徒 (Kirisuto kyōto, literally "Christ" + "teaching" + "student") or the English borrowing クリスチャン (Kurisuchan).
Often wrongly connected to the Spanish pan or the French pain, both with the same meaning and the same Latinate origin. The word was introduced into Japan by Portuguese missionaries.[12]
Originally a term from playing cards, in reference to certain cards that earned the player zero points. This meaning extended to refer to "a boring, shabby, low person", and from there to mean "an unattractive woman".
It is often suggested that the Japanese word arigatō derives from the Portuguese obrigado, both of which mean "Thank you", but evidence indicates arigatō has a purely Japanese origin,[22] so these two words are false cognates.
Arigatō is an "u"-sound change of arigataku.[23] In turn, arigataku is the adverbial form of an adjective arigatai, from older arigatashi,[24] itself a compound of ari + katashi. Written records of arigatashi exist dating back to the Man'yōshū compiled in the 8th century AD,[24]:(1) well before Japanese contact with the Portuguese in the 16th century.
Ari is a conjugation of verb aru meaning "to be", and katashi is an adjective meaning "difficult", so arigatashi literally means "difficult to exist",[24] hence "rare" and thus "precious",[24]:(3) with usage shifting to indicate gratitude for receiving an outstanding kindness.[24]:(5) The phrase to express such gratitude is arigatō gozaimasu,[23]:(イ) or arigatō for short.[23]:(ロ)
Nippo Jisho, the first Japanese dictionary in a Western language
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↑ Tachibana, Shoichi (1936-05-20). 方言学概論[Dialectology] (in Japanese). Tokyo, Japan: 育英書院. pp.223–225. OCLC22958699. JPNO59001801.
↑ Nakagawa, Kiyoshi (2003). 南蛮菓子と和蘭陀菓子の系譜[Study on nanban-kashi and oranda-kashi]. The semiannual periodical of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Department of English and Department of Foreign Languages, Komazawa University (駒澤大学外国語部論集) (in Japanese). 58. Japan: Komazawa University: 92–94.
p94 Rough translation: So, by sometime before the 19th century, [hiryōsu] transformed from a fried confection to a fried savory dish.
↑ Society of Jesus, ed. (1960) [1604]. "Tǒtan". Vocabvlario da lingoa de Iapam (Nippo jisho) (in Portuguese) (1960 reprint by Iwanami Shoten, annotated by Tadao Doied.). Japan: Iwanami Shoten. p.769. Tǒtan. Tutunaga genero de metal branco. (Treating "Tǒtan" as a Japanese word, explaining its meaning with Portuguese word "tutunaga")
Pronunciation in 16c of tǒtan was [tɔ:tan]: Society of Jesus, ed. (1980). オ段長音の表記['O' gemination]. Hoyaku Nippo jisho (in Japanese). Translated by Doi, Tadao; Morita, Takeshi; Chonan, Minoru. Japan: Iwanami Shoten. p.848.
↑ "Tutenag". A New English Dictionary On Historical Principles (OED). Vol.10 Part 1. Book TI-TZ (1926ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1926. p.513.
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