origami

Etymology

It is borrowed from Japanese 折り紙 (origami),^[2][3][4][1] formed from 折り (ori, “folding”), the combining stem of the verb meaning to fold, and 紙 (kami, “paper”), in its combining form.^{[2][5][6][7][8][1]} The OED records the Japanese word in the “Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam” of 1603, and notes that it first meant a certificate or document of authentication made of a folded sheet (12th century).^[2] Barnhart says only that the word has been known in Japanese since the late 1600s.^[9] According to the OED, the ceremonial and decorative art of paper folding had other Japanese names until the late 19th or early 20th century, and origami was perhaps reintroduced for it after German Papierfalten or paper-folding, when Japan adopted the kindergarten movement.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Japanese art of folding paper into intricate decorative designs and objects, and paper folded in this way: 1948, in the Nippon Times.^[2] An English text of 1922 already quotes a Japanese book title containing the word, as a Japanese word.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Barnhart and Etymonline date the English word to 1956,^[4][9][3] and Dictionary.com to 1920–25.^[8]

Semantic evolution

As an art form origami became popular outside Japan only from the 1950s.^[2] Besides the art itself, the word soon named the things made by it, such as birds, insects or flowers,^[4] and it is also used in extended senses.^[2] By the 1990s American magazines and newspapers described it as an ancient Japanese art with clubs and societies of its own.^[10]

Timeline

• 1922 – quoted as a Japanese word, in a book title, in an English text.^[2]
• 1948 – the art of paper folding; paper folded in this way.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1956.^[4][9][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The art, originally Japanese, of folding paper into decorative shapes and objects: She took up origami during the long winter.^{[4][11][2][5]}
2. An object made by folding paper in this way, such as a bird or flower.^[4][2]

Related words

• kirigami

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Evans, Tom (1997), A Dictionary of Japanese Loanwords, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins