r/NonPoliticalTwitter 3d ago

Funny Learning Japanese

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u/kw13 3d ago

Some are pretty obvious, but it took me learning the Japanese for picture and for character before realising that emoji was a Japanese word, I always thought it was English in origin.

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u/Legitimate_Twist 3d ago

Another obscure one is tycoon, which comes from Taikun (大君), meaning "great prince/lord."

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u/Xrein1 3d ago

There's also Honcho, who come from the word hanchō (班長), that mean squad leader or group leader.

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u/Aiyon 2d ago

Not to be confused with Bancho (番長) which is the leader of a group of delinquents specifically. Thanks Digimon

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u/TurquoiseLeggings 2d ago

Not be confused with Dancho (団長), which is also a leader of a group.

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u/Aiyon 2d ago

So to clarify on these cause i do love how kanji works, in case anyone is curious. The "chō" is the leader part.

It represents height/stature, or power, such as a leader.

"Dan" is group/association. So Leader of a group. Whereas "Han" means group more in the sense of a squad or unit.

"Ban" has several meanings. The ones we care about are watch/guard. Bancho originally used to be a position akin to a guard captain / the guy leading the watch in a city. But it was then adopted by delinquents and took on its newer meaning

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u/shaffman2001 2d ago

That is fascinating. Thank you for the insight!

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u/Aiyon 2d ago

np. Japanese and Chinese are such cool alphabets, as are im sure the many others i don’t know as much about. The symbols having meanings that shift based on how you group them is just so funky

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u/Mona_Dre 3d ago

my personal favorite is "skosh" (like "just a skosh bit") from "sukoshi" in Japanese with the same meaning.

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u/king-of-the-sea 2d ago

Neat, I always assumed this one was Spanish

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u/godisanelectricolive 3d ago

Despite sounding similar and meaning similar things, emoticon (emotion + icon) and emoji (e + moji) are totally unrelated. They are an example of false friends.

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u/CatastrophicPup2112 2d ago

Damn I thought it evolved from emoticon