ChiramiEnglish words that came from Japanese: tycoon, honcho, skosh
A few everyday English words are Japanese in disguise. Tycoon comes from 大君 (taikun), “great lord”, a title for the shogun. Honcho, as in “head honcho”, is 班長 (hanchou), “squad leader”. And a skosh, a little bit, is 少し (sukoshi), “a little”. The first arrived with diplomats in the 1850s; the other two came home with American soldiers about a hundred years later.
Tycoon: 大君, “great lord”
大君 (taikun) is 大, great, plus 君, lord. From 1636, Japan’s shoguns used the title 日本国大君 (Nihon-koku taikun), “great lord of Japan”, in their dealings with Korea, and later with other countries too. Their own title, 征夷大将軍 (seii taishougun), strictly speaking meant only a military commander, so diplomacy needed one that could stand for Japan.
When the United States and the European powers began signing treaties with Japan in the 1850s, the shogun appeared in English as “the Tycoon”, and the word has been recorded since 1857. By 1861, Abraham Lincoln’s secretary John Hay was calling him “the Tycoon” in his diary, and after the First World War the word settled on the meaning it has today: a rich and powerful businessman. In Japan the title itself ended in 1868, when the emperor took over foreign affairs.
Honcho: 班長, “squad leader”
班長 (hanchou) is 班, a group or squad, plus 長, head or chief. In Japanese it’s an ordinary word for the leader of a small group or team. American servicemen stationed in Japan and Korea picked it up in the years after the Second World War, and “honcho” entered American English as the officer in charge. Today it can mean any boss. “Head honcho” says the same thing twice, since a honcho is already the head.
Skosh: 少し, “a little”
少し (sukoshi) is the everyday Japanese word for “a little” or “a bit”. American troops took it into English during the Korean War, as military slang: “move it a skosh to the left”. It’s still an informal, slangy word.
What the kanji say
君 (kun, kimi) means lord or ruler, and in everyday Japanese it’s also an informal “you”. Its bottom part is 口, a mouth. The Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, takes it as a mouth giving orders, though it may only be decoration. The name suffix -kun is this kanji too: 田中君 (Tanaka-kun).
班 (han) is a group or squad. It shows a knife (刂) between two pieces of jade, and the Shuowen Jiezi explains it as dividing a piece of jade in two. From “divide” came “a division”, and then “a group”.
長 (chou, nagai) began as a picture of long hair. It means long, and also the head of a group: that’s the chou in 班長, and in 社長 (shachou), a company president, and 校長 (kouchou), a head teacher.
少 (shou, sukoshi) means few or little. It began as four small dots, a picture of something tiny. Its relative 小, small, began as three.
How to use them
少しだけ待ってください。
Sukoshi dake matte kudasai.
Please wait just a little.
もう少し右です。
Mou sukoshi migi desu.
A little more to the right.
この班の班長は誰ですか。
Kono han no hanchou wa dare desu ka.
Who's the leader of this group?
田中君、ちょっといい？
Tanaka-kun, chotto ii?
Tanaka, have you got a minute?
- 大君 isn’t a word for rich people in Japanese. A big shot is 大物 (oomono), and a very wealthy person is 富豪 (fugou).
- 班長 has none of the swagger of “head honcho”. It’s a plain, everyday word for whoever leads the group.
- 少し and ちょっと (chotto) both mean “a little”. ちょっと is more casual, and it’s also a soft way of saying no: ちょっと… on its own can mean “that’s a bit difficult”.
- -kun is used mainly for boys and for people junior to you, and 君 (kimi), “you”, is familiar, so neither is for someone senior.
Words with the same kanji
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 君 | kimi | you (familiar) |
| 班 | han | group, squad |
| 社長 | shachou | company president |
| 長い | nagai | long |
| 少ない | sukunai | few, not many |
| 少々 | shoushou | a little, a moment (polite) |
Remember it
A great lord (大君) at the top, a squad leader (班長) in the middle, and a little bit (少し) at the bottom: three Japanese words that slipped quietly into English, one rank at a time.
The kanji in this lesson
Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.
君mister, you, ruler
- On
- クン kun
- Kun
- きみ kimi
- Strokes
- 7
- Level
- JLPT N3
Common word 諸君 しょくん shokun, you (people)
班squad, corps, unit
- On
- ハン han
- Strokes
- 10
- Level
- JLPT N1
Common word 班長 はんちょう hanchou, squad leader; group leader
長long, leader, superior
- On
- チョウ chou
- Kun
- なが(い) naga(i) · おさ osa
- Strokes
- 8
- Level
- JLPT N5
Common word 長い ながい nagai, long (distance, length)
少few, little
- On
- ショウ shou
- Kun
- すく(ない) suku(nai) · すこ(し) suko(shi)
- Strokes
- 4
- Level
- JLPT N4
Common word 少し すこし sukoshi, a little; a bit