kami

Etymology

It is borrowed from Japanese 神 (kami, “god, spirit, deity”),^[1][2][3][4] recorded in Japanese from the 8th century for a spiritual being, and since the 10th for a force or being worshipped in Shinto.^[2] The OED notes that it is apparently related to Ainu kamui (“deity”), although how the two are related is uncertain.^[2] The earliest English use came through Portuguese camis, a plural, chiefly in the pairing “camis e fotoques” that recurs in Jesuit accounts of Japan from about 1569.^[2] Chambers and Etymonline give the Japanese sense as "superior, lord".^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spirit or deity of the Shinto religion: before 1601, in a manuscript account of the states of the world,^[2] the 1610s in Etymonline.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Early European texts often did not separate Buddhist and Shinto ideas.^[2] Etymonline notes that Japanese converts and Protestant missionaries later chose the word for the Christian God.^[6] Twentieth-century writers explain it as something that cannot easily be translated: a being or essence superior to ordinary existence and therefore revered, found in people, animals, objects and the forces of nature.^[7][8][3] Evans's dictionary of Japanese loanwords dates the word in English to 1727.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1601 – a Shinto spirit or deity.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. In Shinto, a divine being or sacred power, such as a spirit dwelling in a natural feature, a force of nature or an ancestor honoured as a god.^[3][8][9][2]

Related words

• kamikaze
• Shinto

Usage notes

The plural is usually kami.^[3][8][4] The OED enters separately a Kami (1727) used as a title of a Japanese governor, daimyo or other person of authority, now chiefly historical; it comes from a Japanese word for a high official, from kami, top, which the OED calls unrelated to the word for a deity, though the two were associated in Japanese from early on.^[2] Etymonline likewise notes that the title was given to governors.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Evans, Tom (1997), A Dictionary of Japanese Loanwords, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins