Etymograph

English

Japan

Japan comes from Malay Jepang ‘Japanese’, and goes back to Hokkien 日本.

  1. Hokkienmodern日本Ji̍t-pún
  2. MalaymodernJepang‘Japanese’
  3. Dutchc. 1500–presentJapan
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1889same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Hokkienmodern日本Ji̍t-pún
  2. MalaymodernJepang‘Japanese’
  3. Dutchc. 1500–presentJapan
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1889same form

Earliest quotation: 1889, Jan., Oscar Wilde: “Vivian: If you set a picture by Hokusai, or…”

first attested First attested in English as Giapan in Richard Willes's 1577 The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies (cited in Peter C (as stated in the etymology)

The story

First attested in English as Giapan in Richard Willes's 1577 The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies (cited in Peter C. Mancall's Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery, pp. 156–57), translating a 19 February 1565 letter of the Portuguese Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis as "Of the Ilande of Giapan". The earliest form of Japan in Europe was Marco Polo's Cipangu, from some form of synonymous Sinitic 日本國 /日本国 (‘Japan state’).

Every English word from Hokkien 日本

Today it means

name A country in East Asia. Capital and largest city: Tokyo.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Hokkien 日本 / Japan

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