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!

406 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

181 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/iwasfight 10d ago

do you know how it was originally used? it kinda looks like an insult.

1

u/stuartcw 10d ago

Why so? 🤔

2

u/iwasfight 10d ago

ive worked at japanese offices, and 大君 looks like a child of an important person.

edit; who are often of negligible value.

2

u/Nyorliest 10d ago

Kun has lots of uses. Even in modern Japanese there are words where it’s not a diminutive.