Wikipedia:WikiProject Martial arts/Loanwords

Loanwords are words of foreign origin which have been adopted into another language without significantly altering their original meaning. This page is a subpage of WikiProject Martial Arts, and is concerned exclusively with listing and debating whether martial arts-related terms have been adopted as loanwords into English.

Extablishing a particular word's status as a loanword is relevant only insofar as the Manual of Style is concerned, as loanwords are treated like other English words, and non-loanwords should be italicized every time they appear. Further, the accepted loanword spelling or romanization is how the word should appear when it is the title of an article, as well as every time it appears in the article, except when correct spelling or romanization is being specifically discussed or indicated parenthetically.

This page includes guidelines for debating whether a word is a loanword, as well as a series of tables with words which have been approved or rejected as loanwords, divided by language of origin.

Guidelines for determining loanwords

There is no bright-line rule for loanwords. Even if there were such a general rule, this is Wikipedia, so in any event, consensus rules. For the purpose of establishing consensus within the project, there are two important guidelines.

1. Ubiquity. This is obviously very subjective, but simply, is the word widely known in English? Regarding the name of a martial art, is the name well known not only by non-practitioners of that art, but by non-martial artists? The Manual of Style (Japan-related articles) is a helpful example. It gives several examples of Japanese loanwords, such as Tokyo, sushi, futon, tycoon, and tsunami (as well as jujutsu and dojo, which are repeated below). So before lobbying for a word's inclusion as a loanword, ask yourself, "is this term as ubiquitous as 'sushi' or 'tsunami'?" If not, perhaps it should not be considered a loanword.
2. The "dictionary test". This is an objective test: does the word appear in an English dictionary? Two specific dictionaries have been linked and referenced here (Merriam-Webster Online, and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Langage, 4th ed.), because they are both extremely well known and respected, and have free web access for word searches. This permits reliability, reproducibility and transparency when debating a word. Again, a word's presence or absence in either of these dictionaries is not conclusive of its loanword status, but the dictionary test should be considered highly persuasive. If a word does not appear in either of these dictionaries, but does appear in others, this may be given due weight, also.

What follows is a series of tables, divided by language of origin, alphabetically listing words that have been accepted or rejected after consensus was reached. If you believe that a word should be accepted as a loanword, or would like to dispute the acceptance or rejection of a word, please discuss at our talk page. Before making a request, please be aware that this page is not intended to exhaustively list every martial arts-related loanword; please confine requests to words that are currently being or likely to be contested.

Chinese

The following are two tables for words of Chinese origin which have either been accepted or rejected as loanwords in English.

Loanwords (Chinese)

Loanword	Passes dictionary test		Trad. Chinese	Simp. Chinese	Pinyin	Wade-Giles	Literal translation	Discussion
	Webst.	Am. Her.
kung fu	yes	yes	功夫	功夫	gōngfu		achievement through great effort	here
tai chi chuan	yes (as "tai chi")	yes (as "tai chi")	太極拳	太极拳	tàijíquán	t'ai4 chi2 ch'üan2	supreme ultimate boxing; great extremes boxing	here

Rejected words (Chinese)

None at this time.

Japanese

The following are two tables for words of Japanese origin which have either been accepted or rejected as loanwords in English.

Loanwords (Japanese)

Loanword	Passes dictionary test		Kanji	Hiragana	Rev. Hepburn	Kunrei-shiki	Literal translation	Discussion
	Webst.	Am. Her.
aikido	yes	yes	合気道	あいきどう	aikidō	aikidô	way of joining energy; way of harmonizing life force
dojo	yes	yes	道場	どうじょう	dōjō	dôsyô	way place	here
judo	yes	yes	柔道	じゅうどう	jūdō	zyûdô	way of softness/gentleness
jujutsu	yes	yes	柔術	じゅうじゅつ	jūjutsu	zyûzyutu	art/science of softness/gentleness	here
karate	yes	yes	空手	からて	karate	karate	empty hand
kendo	yes	yes	剣道	けんどう	kendō	kendô	way of the sword	here

Rejected words (Japanese)

Rejected word	Passes dictionary test		Kanji	Hiragana	Rev. Hepburn	Kunrei-shiki	Literal translation	Discussion
	Webst.	Am. Her.
iaido	no	no	居合道	いあいどう	iaidō	iaidô	way of mental presence and immediate reaction	here
iaito	no	no	居合刀	いあいとう	iaitō	iaitô	sword of mental presence and immediate reaction	here
kempo	no	no	拳法	けんぽう	kenpō	kenpô	fist principles/method	here, here, here, and here
kyudo	no	no	弓道	きゅうどう	kyūdō	kyûdô	way of the bow	here

Korean

The following are two tables for words of Korean origin which have either been accepted or rejected as loanwords in English.

Loanwords (Korean)

Loanword	Passes dictionary test		Hangul	Hanja	Rev. Rom.	McC.-Reisch.	Literal translation	Discussion
	Webst.	Am. Her.
taekwondo	yes (as "tae kwon do")	yes (as "tae kwon do")	태권도	跆拳道	tae gwon do	t'ae kwŏn do	way of striking with feet and fists	here, and here

Rejected words (Korean)

Rejected word	Passes dictionary test		Hangul	Hanja	Rev. Rom.	McC.-Reisch.	Literal translation	Discussion
	Webst.	Am. Her.
gup	no	no	급		geup	kŭp	grade	here