3 ms·
Huh, you've just caused me to reexamine the word gaijin. gai (外) = outside, jin(人) = person\nationality. gaijin(外字) is outside + character. Neat!
by a_t48 10y ago
Huh, you've just caused me to reexamine the word gaijin. gai (外) = outside, jin(人) = person\nationality. gaijin(外字) is outside + character. Neat!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- silluk 10y agoSimilarly, the word "loanword" (used to describe words borrowed from other languages) is gairaigo 外来語 which is literally 外来 (gairai) "foreign" + 語 (go) "word/language". Japanese is filled with words where you can often figure out the meaning purely from the characters used!