Gairaigo (外来語) is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word," and indicates a transliteration (or "transvocalization") into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a modern Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese.

Most gairaigo are derived from English; others come from French and German, Dutch, and Portuguese, among others. Gairaigo, while making Japanese easier to learn for foreign students in some cases, can also cause problems due to independent semantic progression. For example, sutōbu (ストーブ) from English "stove" does not mean a cooking appliance as many Americans would expect, but rather a space heater; the Japanese meaning is derived from the British meaning of "a heat-producing device". The Japanese term for a cooking stove is another gairaigo term, renji (レンジ), from English "range"—a gas stove is a gasurenji (ガスレンジ). Additionally, Japanese combine words in ways that are uncommon in English. As an example, left over is a baseball term for a hit that goes over the left-fielder's head, rather than food uneaten at the end of the meal. This is a term that appears to be a loan but is actually wasei-eigo, literally, "English made in Japan."

In written Japanese, gairaigo are almost exclusively written in katakana, but not always. Some older loanwords can also be written in hiragana or even kanji, e.g. tabako (たばこ or 煙草) = tobacco.

Some gairaigo are shortened forms of the original foreign language word. For example, depāto (デパート) = department store. Portmanteaus, such as wāpuro (ワープロ) for "word processor", are common. Karaoke, a combination of the Japanese word kara and the clipped form oke of the English loanword "orchestra" (J. ōkesutora オーケストラ), is a portmanteau that has entered the English language. Ordinarily, the Japanese take the first part of a foreign word, but from the English words "flannel" and "blanket" they took the second syllables, to form the gairaigo neru and ketto.

Some gairaigo words have been reborrowed into their original source languages, particularly in the jargon of fans of Japanese entertainment. For example, anime (アニメ) is gairaigo derived from the word "animation", but has been reborrowed into English with the meaning of "animation from Japan". Similarly, puroresu (プロレス) derives from "professional wrestling", and has been adopted by English-speaking wrestling fans as a term for the style of pro wrestling performed in Japan.

For an extensive list of terms, see the List of Gairaigo and Wasei-eigo terms.

Gairaigo misconception

Coincidentally, the word arigatō (有り難う or ありがとう, Japanese for "thank you") sounds somewhat like the Portuguese word obrigado, which has the same meaning. Given the number of borrowings from Portuguese, it may seem reasonable to suppose that the Japanese imported that word--which is the explanation accepted and indeed published by many. However, arigatō is not a gairaigo; rather, it is a form of the native Japanese adjective arigatai (ありがたい), the use of which dates to several centuries before contact with the Portuguese. This makes the two terms false cognates. (Incidentally, obrigado is cognate to obligation, a loan from Old French.)

See also

• Engrish
• Transcribing English to Japanese