‘nation of shopkeepers’: meaning and origin
UK, 1759: first applied to Japan—1794 (during the French Revolution): the disparaging use in reference to Britain was popularised by the French phrase ‘nation boutiquière’
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‘maneki-neko’: meaning and origin
a Japanese figurine of a sitting cat beckoning with one raised paw, traditionally believed to bring good luck—USA, 1894—from Japanese ‘maneku’ (to invite by beckoning, especially with the hand) and ‘neko’ (a cat)
Read More‘yellow peril’: meaning and origin
the political, military or economical threat regarded as being posed by certain peoples of South-East and East Asia, especially the Chinese and the Japanese—UK, 1895—loan translation from French ‘péril jaune’
Read More‘femiphobia’ & ‘feminophobia’: meaning and origin
‘femiphobia’ (USA) 1907—‘feminophobia’ (UK) 1914—an irrational fear or dislike of women—from Latin ‘fēmina’ (woman) and combining form ‘-phobia’—probably each coined on various occasions by different persons, independently from each other
Read More‘hikikomori’: meanings and origin
Japan 1990s—the extreme avoidance of social contact, especially by adolescent males; a person, typically an adolescent male, who avoids social contact—Japanese ‘hikikomori’ is the nominalised stem of the verb ‘hikikomoru’, meaning ‘to withdraw into seclusion’
Read More‘trigger-happy’: meaning and origin
USA, 1942—over-ready to shoot at anything at any time or on slight provocation—during and following WWII, ‘happy’ was used as the second element in compound adjectives relating to mental instability associated with the first element
Read More‘to open the kimono’: meaning and origin
USA, 1975—especially used of a firm—to divulge information or secrets—based on the notion of opening one’s kimono and revealing one’s naked body
Read More‘Paris syndrome’: meaning and origin
1992—the culture shock experienced by an individual (typically a Japanese) who, when visiting, or living in, Paris, realises that this city does not fulfil their idealised expectations—apparently a loan translation from Japanese ‘Pari shōkōgun’, coined by Japanese psychiatrist Hiroaki Ōta
Read More‘the eighth wonder of the world’: meaning and origin
1613—used hyperbolically of any impressive object, etc.—also applied ironically to a self-satisfied or arrogant person—refers to the seven wonders of the world, i.e., the seven most spectacular man-made structures of the ancient world
Read More‘a Jap on Anzac Day’: meanings and origin
Australia, 1973—used of anything that is absolutely unacceptable, and of any disagreeable situation or experience—‘Jap’: derogatory shortening of ‘Japanese’—Anzac Day: commemoration of the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915
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word histories 