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Hiragana

2 stages from Japanese to English.

Today it means one of the two phonetic syllabaries used in Japanese writing, marked by rounded characters

Where does the word "hiragana" come from? It comes from Japanese hiragana, adopted directly into English (1800s-1900s).

hiragana→hiragana

Japanese · 9th century

"a rounded phonetic syllabary"

developed as a cursive, simplified script from Chinese characters, associated early on with women's writing

English · 1800s-1900s

"the rounded Japanese phonetic writing system"

borrowed by linguists and Japanese-language textbooks

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