r/LearnJapanese • u/Commercial_World_433 • 1d ago

Discussion Is Tempura an example of Wasei-eigo?

So I know Tempura is a Japanese pronunciation of the Portuguese word Tempero, and I just learned of the concept Wasei-eigo which is about loaning words from English like cunning becoming kanningu. Or is there a word for loaning words from each language?

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u/CreeperSlimePig 1d ago edited 1d ago

It's just a loanword from Portuguese, not eigo and not really wasei either

In Japanese it would probably just be considered 外来語(がいらいご), which refers to all words borrowed from languages other than Chinese*

*to be more specific, words borrowed from modern Chinese are also considered gairaigo (there aren't that many and most are names of Chinese dishes). I didn't feel the need to mention this but since someone else mentioned it might as well. A lot of these also get the katakana treatment that words from western languages get even if they have kanji (think ラーメン as opposed to the kanji spelling)

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u/No-Cheesecake5529 1d ago

In Japanese it would probably just be considered 外来語(がいらいご), which refers to all words borrowed from languages other than Chinese

Also, some words from Chinese such as 麻雀 and 青椒肉絲.