Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Japanese ·1950s
Honcho
from hanchō — "squad leader"
- Meaning
- Small-unit military leader.
- Source word
- hanchō — "squad leader"
- Route into English
- American GIs in occupied Japan (1945–52) adopted the word; it reached general US slang by the 1950s as "the person in charge."
- Arrived
- 1950s
From Japanese
Two waves — Meiji-era diplomatic contact (1850s–1900s) and post-war US military presence (1945–) account for almost all Japanese loans in general English.
English borrows.
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