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prettygoodwordjaponica (juh-PON-i-kuh) - n., any of several plants and animals originally native to Japan, especially a) a camellia (Camellia japonica) cultivated for its waxy flowers in a variety of colors; b) a flowering quince (Chaenomeles japonica) cultivated for its red flowers.
And a rice, a butterfly, etc. I usually assume the camellia as my default:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
All the names are from New Latin, feminine form of japonicus, Japanese, from Japonia, Japan, from either the Dutch or Portuguese borrowing from Malay Jepang, from some older southern Chinese dialect's version of Middle Chinese nyit-pwón (日本, modern Mandarin reading rìběn) -- any while the first version of this word to appear in Europe was Marco Polo's Cipangu, our English word has a different transmission path.
---L.
And a rice, a butterfly, etc. I usually assume the camellia as my default:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
All the names are from New Latin, feminine form of japonicus, Japanese, from Japonia, Japan, from either the Dutch or Portuguese borrowing from Malay Jepang, from some older southern Chinese dialect's version of Middle Chinese nyit-pwón (日本, modern Mandarin reading rìběn) -- any while the first version of this word to appear in Europe was Marco Polo's Cipangu, our English word has a different transmission path.
---L.
