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Gung ho, Tycoon, Amuck

Asian loan words in English
One of the chief characteristics of English is its teeming vocabulary, an estimated 80% of which has come from other languages! Linguistic borrowing has occurred over many centuries, whenever English speakers have come into contact with other cultures, whether through conquest and colonization, trade and commerce, immigration, leisure travel, or war.
While English has borrowed most heavily from the languages of Europe and the Near East, it has also acquired many loan words from Asia, sometimes through the intermediary of Dutch, the native language of the merchant-sailors who dominated the Spice Islands trade in the 17th century.
Many of these borrowed words no longer seem foreign, having been completely assimilated into English.

Amoy (eastern China)
• pekoe, a type of tea.
• tea, originally pronounced like “tay,” can be traced to Dutch thee, from Malay and Amoy.

Cantonese (southern China, Hong Kong)
• chop suey, from a word meaning “miscellaneous bits.”
• chow, related to chop in chop suey, from a word meaning “food, miscellany.”
• kumquat, a small citrus fruit.
• typhoon, from the words for “great wind.”
• wok, a round-bottomed cooking vessel.
• yen, meaning a “yearning” or “strong desire.”

Mandarin (Beijing, China; official national standard)
• gung ho, a motto used by the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, from words meaning “work together.” It was picked up by U.S. Marines during World War II.
• kow-tow, from words meaning “to knock [one’s] head.”
• kung fu, from gong fu, meaning “skill, art.”

Korean
• tae kwon do, meaning “trample-fist-way.”

Tahitian
• tattoo, introduced to the English-speaking world by Capt. James Cook in his account of his voyage around the world from 1768 to 1771. Sailors later brought the actual custom to Europe.

Tongan
• taboo, like tattoo, occurs for the first time in Capt. James Cook’s journals.

Japanese
• aikido, from words meaning “mutual spirit art.”
• futon, a type of mattress.
• geisha, from gei, meaning “art” and sha, “person.”
• hara-kiri, from hara, meaning “abdomen, bowels” and kiri, “to cut.”
• honcho, from a word meaning “squad leader.”
• judo, from words meaning “soft way.”
• jujitsu, from words meaning “soft arts.”
• kamikaze, is translated literally as “divine wind,” from the name of a typhoon that saved Japan by destroying the Mongol navy in 1281.
• karaoke, from kara, meaning “void, empty” and oke(sutora), meaning “orchestra.” In a case of reverse borrowing, the Japanese word okesutora came from the English word orchestra.
• karate, from words meaning “empty hand.”
• kimono.
• ninja, from nin, meaning “to endure” and ja, “person.”
• ramen, ultimately from the Mandarin Chinese words for “pulled noodles.”
• rickshaw, from jinrikisha, meaning “person-strength-vehicle.”
• sake, a rice wine.
• samurai, “warrior.”
• shogun, “general.”
• soy.
• sushi.
• tofu, originally borrowed into Japanese from Chinese.
• tsunami, meaning a “large ocean wave.”
• tycoon, from taikun, meaning “great prince.” Used as a title, the word was originally borrowed into Japanese from Chinese. It was brought to the U.S. after Matthew Perry’s visit to Japan in 1853 and 1854. Members of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet used it as an affectionate nickname for the president. Later it was applied to business magnates such as J. P. Morgan.

Hawaiian
• hula, a dance accompanied by chant or song.
• luau, a Hawaiian feast.
• ukelele, from words meaning “flea jumping.”

Malay (Malaysia and Indonesia)
• amuck (or amok).
• batik.
• cockatoo, from Malay kakatua, via Dutch.
• gingham, borrowed from Malay into Dutch (ginggang), and from Dutch into English.
• gong.
• ketchup, from kicap, meaning “fish sauce.”
• launch, a type of boat.
• orangutan, from orang, meaning “man” and hutan, “wilderness, jungle.”
• paddy, from padi, meaning “rice, rice field.”
• rattan, a Malaysian palm.

By Ann-Marie Imbornoni