Definify.com
Definition 2024
神風
神風
See also: 神风
Chinese
God; unusual; mysterious; soul; spirit; divine essence; lively; spiritual being
|
wind; news; style; custom; manner
|
||
|---|---|---|---|
| trad. (神風) | 神 | 風 | |
| simp. (神风) | 神 | 风 | |
| anagram | 風神／风神 | ||
Noun
神風
Japanese
| Kanji in this term | |
|---|---|
| 神 | 風 |
|
かみ Grade: 3 |
かぜ Grade: 2 |
| kun'yomi | |
Etymology
神 kami “god, divine” + 風 kaze “wind”
Noun
神風 (hiragana かみかぜ, romaji kamikaze)
- Literally “divine wind”, a name given to a typhoon that saved Japan from a Mongol invasion in the 13th century.
- kamikaze
Derived terms
- 神風特別攻撃隊 (shinpū tokubetsu kōgeki tai)
- 神風タクシー (kamikaze takushii)
Usage notes
- 神風 is also the ultimate source of the English word kamikaze, by a circuitous route. The characters appear in 神風特別攻撃隊, “神風 special attack unit”, the name of one kamikaze unit surely named after the typhoon but given the Sino-Japanese reading “shinpū”. However “shinpū” is not a word in its own right. The Japanese use the term “special attack unit” written in the abbreviated form 特攻隊 (tokkōtai) when referring to the WWII suicide pilots.
Anagrams
See also
- 切腹 (seppuku)
- 特攻隊 (tokkōtai)
- 腹切 (hara-kiri)
- Discussion of this term on Languagehat, a language blog