Japan

Ja·pan

Use Japan in a sentence

noun

Japan is defined as an Asian island country located off the Eastern coast of Asia.
An example of Japan is where Tokyo is located.
Japan means a hard smooth and glossy black coating.
An example of japan is the enamel like coating used to make metal surfaces black and shiny.

verb

The definition of japan is to add a dark, smooth and hard gloss to a metal object.
An example of japan is varnishing a metal box with a black shiny coating.

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"japan." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan>.

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japan. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan

japan

a lacquer or varnish giving a hard, glossy finish
a liquid mixture used as a paint drier
also japan drier
objects decorated and lacquered in the Japanese style

Origin of japan

origin, originally produced in Japan

transitive verb

-·panned′, -·pan′ning

to varnish or lacquer with or as with japan

Japan

island country in the Pacific, off the E coast of Asia, including Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, & many smaller islands: 145,883 sq mi (377,835 sq km); cap. Tokyo
arm of the Pacific, between Japan & E Asia: 391,100 sq mi (1,012,945 sq km)

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"japan." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan>.

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japan. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan

japan

noun

A black enamel or lacquer used to produce a durable glossy finish.
An object decorated with this substance.

transitive verb

ja·panned, ja·pan·ning, ja·pans

To decorate with a black enamel or lacquer.
To coat with a glossy finish.

Origin of japan

After Japan

Japan

A country consisting of an archipelago off the eastern coast of Asia. The islands' indigenous culture was largely supplanted after c. 600 BC by settlers from the mainland, who adopted an imperial system of government modeled on China's. After a long period (12th-19th century) of domination by a series of shoguns, feudalism was abolished on the restoration of the emperor Mutsuhito (1868) and the country was opened to trade with the West. Japan's industrialization and expansionism led to a series of wars, culminating in its defeat (1945) in World War II. After the war Japan's economy was rebuilt with American assistance, developing an industrial sector centered around automobiles and electronics. Tokyo is the capital and the largest city.x

Word History: In AD 670, during the early part of the Chinese Tang dynasty, Japanese scholars who had studied Chinese created a new name for their country using the Chinese phrase for “origin of the sun, sunrise,” because Japan is located east of China. In the Chinese of the time (called Early Middle Chinese), the phrase was &jnlig;it-pən'. To this the scholars added the Chinese word -kwək, “country,” yielding a compound &jnlig;it-pən'-kwək, “sun-origin-country, land of the rising sun.” The consonant clusters in this word could not be pronounced in Old Japanese, and it became Nip-pon-koku or *Ni-pon-koku. The Modern Japanese names for Japan, Nippon and Nihon, come from the Old Japanese forms, minus the element meaning “country.” Interestingly, the Chinese took to calling Japan by the name that the Japanese had invented, and the English name Japan ultimately derives from the Chinese version. In Mandarin Chinese, one of the descendants of Middle Chinese, the phrase evolved to Rìběnguó. Marco Polo records an early form of this as Chipangu, which he would have pronounced (chĭ-pän-g&oomac;) or (shĭ-pän-g&oomac;). The Chinese name was also borrowed into Malay as Japang, and in the 16th century, Portuguese traders borrowed the Malay name as Japão. The other languages of Europe probably adopted the name from the Portuguese. The first known use of Japan in English dates from 1577, when it is spelled Giapan.

Japan

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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"japan." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan>.

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japan. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan

japan

Japanism 1. devotion to or preference for the customs, policies, language, or culture of Japan. 2. anything peculiar to or characteristic of Japan or its people. Japonism a style of art, idiom, custom, mannerism, etc., typical of the Japanese.

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"japan." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan>.

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japan. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan

Noun

(uncountable)

A hard black enamel varnish containing asphalt.
Lacquer ware.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present japans, present participle japanning, simple past and past participle japanned)

To varnish with japan.

Origin

From Japan, due to this varnishing process being an imitation of oriental (East Asian) processes.

Proper noun

An island nation in the Pacific Ocean, located to the east of China, Korea and Russia.

Origin

From Dutch Japan or Portuguese Japão, from Malay Jepang, from Sinitic 日本 (Middle Chinese nyit-pwón < Old Chinese *nit-pˁənʔ) (compare Cantonese Yat⁶-bun² 日本, Korean Ilbon 일본, Japanese Nippon にっぽん, Mandarin Rìběn 日本, Vietnamese Nhật Bản).

Although the earliest form of "Japan" in Europe was Marco Polo's "Chipangu", the first recorded form in English was in a letter dated February 19, 1565 (published 1577), spelt “Giapan”. “Of the Ilande of Giapan”, by Luīs Fróis (a Portuguese Jesuit missionary in Japan), published in Richard Willes, “The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies” (London 1577), cited in “Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery”, by Peter C. Mancall, pp. 156–57.

See also: Japán

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

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MLA Style

"japan." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 20 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan>.

APA Style

japan. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Japan

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