Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “kamikaze” come from?

Kamikaze is a Japanese word 神風 derived from Middle Chinese しんぷう, originally denoting a divine wind in East Asian cosmology.

kamikaze (English): An attack requiring the suicide of the one...

Definitions

  1. An attack requiring the suicide of the one...

Ancestry of “kamikaze”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese神風a divine wind; a kamikaze, a suicide pilot in...
2Japanese神a spirit or an essence present in all things, the...
3Japaneseかみ—
4Translingual−—
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