パチンコ

Japanese

パチンコ (pachinko): a pachinko parlor.

Etymology

Compound of ぱちん (pachin, onomatopoeia for a small hard thing striking something else; compare English kaching) +‎ 子 (ko, suffix used to form nouns, often diminutive).

Appears from the Taishō period in the early 1900s. A pinball-like children's game was first called ガチャンコ (gachanko) of similar derivation, with the more gambling-oriented パチンコ (pachinko) becoming popular from around 1947.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

パチンコ (rōmaji pachinko)

  1. pachinko, a form of vertical pinball used for gambling and sometimes in found in arcades
  2. a slingshot, a stonebow
  3. (slang) a pistol

Usage notes

The slingshot sense may be more commonly spelled in hiragana, as ぱちんこ.

Derived terms

  • パチンコ台 (だい) (pachinkodai): pachinko machine
  • パチンコ屋 (や) (pachinkoya): pachinko parlor

Descendants

References

  1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
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