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Anime (アニメ) is literally short for animation (アニメーション, animeishon).

dylan604 3y ago
literal meaning and widely accepted use meaning do not always align. if I said Anime, would you think Tiny Toons, Family Guy, Toy Story, or Lion King? Or would you think DBZ, Akira, One Piece, etc?
- fenomas 3y ago
  To be fair the library name may be based on Japanese usage, where the term just means anything animated (including all the works you mentioned).
  - 411111111111111 3y ago
    It's like the discussions about manga/manhua/manwha we keep return to, when they're all literally the same word with the same pronunciation and same meaning. It's really interesting how much lore we've created in our forums that doesn't actually exist in the country of origin.
    - MiguelX413 3y ago
      Loanwords from all languages experience semantic shift very often.
- bmacho 3y ago
  I believe 'literal meaning' and 'widely accepted use meaning' do always align, by definition of 'meaning'. 'Anime' in English means cartoon that is at least partially originates from Japan. Or, a less common usage is cartoon that has the style of the former cartoons (e.g. Avatar). 'Anime' in Japanese or in French can mean different things.
cthalupa 3y ago
I'm guessing it's because of the author being French, as another commenter pointed out, but, it's plenty common for loan words to end up having a more specific or outright different meaning in a different language We're talking French and Japanese here so let's look at one going the opposite way - the french avec to アベック/ abekku. In French it just means 'with' - eggs with ham, let's go to the beach with friends, whatever. In Japanese it is used to mean that you're romantically with someone, and is used as a noun to stand in for the word couple. Or for a more specific usage example, high ball in English refers to any mixed drink where the base spirit is a lower volume of the drink than the mixer, e.g. gin and tonic, screwdriver, etc. In Japan a ハイボール / hai barru refers almost universally to whiskey and soda water. Of course other highball drinks are served there, but will tend to get a more specific name, such as a shochu highball being a チューハイ / chuhai. It's more rare for this to happen with a chain of original word -> loan word -> loan word, but still something that happens - it's called 'reborrowing' a word. Another example of this would be the Chinese having reborrowed matcha to mean Japanese-style green tea. It's not silly or wrong to utilize the word anime in the west to refer specifically to Japanese-style animation.
- aerio 3y ago
  Japanese animation and comics are also particularly popular in France. 55% of all comics in France were manga in 2021, and it's the second biggest anime market outside of Japan. Biggest in Europe.
Hamuko 3y ago
No, アニメ is literally short for アニメーション. "Anime" is a loanword derived from アニメ with a different meaning than アニメ because it doesn't make sense to borrow a word for "animation" since there already exists one.

literal meaning and widely accepted use meaning do not always align. if I said Anime, would you think Tiny Toons, Family Guy, Toy Story, or Lion King? Or would you think DBZ, Akira, One Piece, etc?

fenomas 3y ago
To be fair the library name may be based on Japanese usage, where the term just means anything animated (including all the works you mentioned).
- 411111111111111 3y ago
  It's like the discussions about manga/manhua/manwha we keep return to, when they're all literally the same word with the same pronunciation and same meaning. It's really interesting how much lore we've created in our forums that doesn't actually exist in the country of origin.
  - MiguelX413 3y ago
    Loanwords from all languages experience semantic shift very often.
bmacho 3y ago
I believe 'literal meaning' and 'widely accepted use meaning' do always align, by definition of 'meaning'. 'Anime' in English means cartoon that is at least partially originates from Japan. Or, a less common usage is cartoon that has the style of the former cartoons (e.g. Avatar). 'Anime' in Japanese or in French can mean different things.

cthalupa 3y ago

I'm guessing it's because of the author being French, as another commenter pointed out, but, it's plenty common for loan words to end up having a more specific or outright different meaning in a different language We're talking French and Japanese here so let's look at one going the opposite way - the french avec to アベック/ abekku. In French it just means 'with' - eggs with ham, let's go to the beach with friends, whatever. In Japanese it is used to mean that you're romantically with someone, and is used as a noun to stand in for the word couple. Or for a more specific usage example, high ball in English refers to any mixed drink where the base spirit is a lower volume of the drink than the mixer, e.g. gin and tonic, screwdriver, etc. In Japan a ハイボール / hai barru refers almost universally to whiskey and soda water. Of course other highball drinks are served there, but will tend to get a more specific name, such as a shochu highball being a チューハイ / chuhai. It's more rare for this to happen with a chain of original word -> loan word -> loan word, but still something that happens - it's called 'reborrowing' a word. Another example of this would be the Chinese having reborrowed matcha to mean Japanese-style green tea. It's not silly or wrong to utilize the word anime in the west to refer specifically to Japanese-style animation.

aerio 3y ago
Japanese animation and comics are also particularly popular in France. 55% of all comics in France were manga in 2021, and it's the second biggest anime market outside of Japan. Biggest in Europe.

Hamuko 3y ago

No, アニメ is literally short for アニメーション. "Anime" is a loanword derived from アニメ with a different meaning than アニメ because it doesn't make sense to borrow a word for "animation" since there already exists one.