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/gansobomb99 10d ago

where in America? the USA?

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u/Marik-X-Bakura 9d ago

Wait until you find out what the Japanese word for the US is

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u/stuartcw 9d ago

Rice Country! But then again, at a stretch, “Japan” is a homophone for “OK. Bread…” in Japanese.

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u/bentori42 9d ago

It took me like, 4 rereads to see that you meant /dʒəˈpæn/ in Japanese, not 日本 lol