Yakuza Definition

yäko͝o-zä
yakuza
noun
A Japanese gangster.
Webster's New World

A Japanese syndicate of organized criminals.

Webster's New World

Origin of Yakuza

  • Japanese yakuza card hand consisting of eight, nine, and three (the worst possible hand in a traditional Japanese card game in which a player's final score is the last digit of the sum of the values of the player's hand), good-for-nothing, yakuza ya eight (from Old Japanese) ku nine (from Early Middle Chinese kuw’) ((also the source of Mandarin jiǔ nine)) (ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan d-ku) (Tibetan dgu) za alteration of san three (from Middle Chinese sam) (also the source of Mandarin sān sampan)

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Japanese, やくざ

    From Wiktionary

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