Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Japanese ·1940s
Kamikaze
from 神風 (kamikaze)
- Meaning
- Divine wind — the 1281 typhoon that wrecked Mongol invasion fleets.
- Source word
- 神風 (kamikaze)
- Route into English
- Revived for the WWII suicide pilots; figurative ("kamikaze pricing") since 1980s.
- Arrived
- 1940s
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.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.