gaijin
/ˈɡaɪˌd͡ʒɪn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.19 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A non-Japanese person.
noun
A white person.
Example Sentences
- "The peculiar position of his group, according to Mr. Okimoto, is shown by the Japanese habit of referring to such persons as either nisei or nikkeijin —of Japanese descent—instead of calling them gaijin, that is, foreigners, or identifying them by nationality."
- "For a while he began to speak Japanese, rather slangy, never having seemed to learn it — karoshi for death from overwork, yakitaori-ya for eatery, and gaijin for clumsy foreigner."
- "The sarariman had been Japanese, but the Ninsei crowd was a gaijin crowd."
- "And I did not intend to live my life as a gaijin—not merely, like the expatriate, someone by definition permanently out of place but someone unwanted as well."
- "[...] I was placed in the gaijins' dormitory area up on the third floor."
- "Oh's pitchers later acknowledged that they were instructed—under penalty of a fine—to throw no strikes to the gaijin."
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 外人 (gaijin, “foreigner”), from Middle Chinese 外人 (ngwajᴴ nyin). Compare Mandarin 外人 (wàirén), from Old Chinese 外人 (*ŋʷaːds njin, “foreigner, outsider” < “non-relative”), from 外 (wài, “outside, outer”) + 人 (rén, “person”).
Word Breakdown
- Root: 外人