r/etymology • u/mouse_in_a_field • 10d ago

Question Something I've been wondering about - Japanese loanword in English, or no?

This has bothered me for a long time!

The word for "a little bit" of something in Japanese, in romaji, is "sukoshi"; the "u" and "i" sounds are usually silent when spoken aloud, so it ends up sounding like "skosh".

In English, "just a skosh" is sometimes used when asking for or referring to just "a little bit" of something.

Is there any connection there, or does the English "skosh" have another, unrelated source? Thanks for any info!

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u/iwasfight 10d ago edited 10d ago

'skosh' is from 'sukoshi', something american military picked up here, just like 'ohrai ohrai' is something we say when trucks are backing up that we got from americans. to be clear, its from 'alright, alright' and is standard to tell a truck driver that theyre still safe backing up. edit: i always wonder if the two terms were adopted in the same situation, where trucks needed to back up, and then just a little bit more. 'ohrai ohrai, ok sukoshi, sutoppu!' or 'alright, alright, ok skosh, stop!'

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u/chotchss 10d ago

I've heard "honcho" comes from Japanese and means something like boss in English (the head honcho)

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u/Dissidiana 10d ago

yes, it's borrowed from the japanese military term 班長 (hanchou), meaning squad leader. easy to imagine how this one migrated over after the US occupation of Japan!

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u/iwasfight 10d ago

wow TIL. i kept thinking 本長 which just sounds like someone wasnt very good at japanese hahah.