zaibatsu

Where does the word "zaibatsu" come from? It comes from Japanese zaibatsu, and was adopted directly into English (early-mid 1900s).

Zaibatsu’s story begins in Japanese: zaibatsu meant “a powerful family-owned business conglomerate.” Literally 'financial clique', naming the family-controlled industrial and banking conglomerates of imperial Japan. It reached English by early-mid 1900s as zaibatsu. Japanese 'wealth clique'; Mitsui and Mitsubishi were broken up by the US occupation after 1945. Today, zaibatsu means a large, family-controlled industrial and financial conglomerate, historically associated with prewar Japan.

1. Stage 1 · Japanese · late 1800s zaibatsu "a powerful family-owned business conglomerate", literally 'financial clique', naming the family-controlled industrial and banking conglomerates of imperial Japan.
2. Stage 2 · English · early-mid 1900s zaibatsu "a large, family-controlled Japanese business conglomerate", Japanese 'wealth clique'; Mitsui and Mitsubishi were broken up by the US occupation after 1945.