wasei kango

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese 和製漢語 (literally “Japan-made Chinese words”)

Noun
  1. Japanese-made Chinese-character-based words
  2. Japanese pseudo-sinicisms: Japanese coinages using Chinese roots, not originally in use in Chinese-speaking countries nor by Chinese native speakers, but only by speakers of Japanese

See also

Notes

Although invented in Japan, some of these terms, such as sushi 寿 (す)司 (し) (sushi, “sushi”, literally “sour rice”) have been reimported to Chinese, as 壽司／寿司 (shòusī) . This is typical of orthographic borrowings to Chinese from Chinese-character based scripts; for example Tokyo 東 (とう)京 (きょう) (tōkyō, “Tokyo”, literally “eastern capital”) is pronounced differently but written the same (or in simplified form), as 東京／东京 (Dōngjīng) , also meaning Tokyo.

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