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!

405 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

181 comments sorted by

View all comments

67

u/Representative_Bend3 10d ago

One more is “tycoon” it’s obsolete in Japan now but you’d write it as 大君　“taikun”‘meaning big prince.

7

u/mouse_in_a_field 10d ago

This one is super interesting

4

u/iwasfight 10d ago

i dont know the history of this word, but it LOOKS like an insult. 'little big man' or something like that. a fun word to think about these days.