ramen

Etymology

It is borrowed from Japanese ラーメン (rāmen),^[2][1][3][4] recorded in Japanese by 1930,^[2] from Chinese 拉麵 (lāmiàn, “pulled noodles”),^{[2][1][5][6][7]} a compound of the Chinese words for "to pull, stretch" and "noodle".^[2][5][8][3] In Japanese the second part was assimilated to the native word for noodle, itself an older borrowing from Chinese, recorded from 1566 or earlier.^[2] The Chinese word for noodle is also the second part of chow mein.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Chinese-style wheat-flour noodles in Japanese cooking: 1962, in Nutrition in Japan;^[2] Merriam-Webster and Etymonline give the same year, the latter noting that the first English use was of instant ramen noodles.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

In Japan the dish was first called shina soba, Chinese noodles; references to China were avoided during the Second World War, and after it the word shina was felt as disparaging, so ramen took its place.^[7] Etymonline quotes the historian Katarzyna Cwiertka on its origins: the Tokyo restaurant Rairaiken, opened in 1910 with Chinese cooks from the Yokohama Chinatown, was the first to serve the dish.^[7] In English the word names both the dish of noodles in broth with meat and vegetables and the dried noodles sold for it, especially as instant noodles;^[9][10][3] Evans quotes American newspaper and magazine uses from the 1980s and 1990s, including ramen shops.^[9]

Timeline

• 1930 – rāmen recorded in Japanese.^[2]
• 1962 – first English record, of Chinese-style noodles in Japanese cooking.^[2][3][7]
• 1986 – a dish of noodles in clear broth, in the American magazine Sunset.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Japanese dish of thin wheat noodles in a clear broth, usually topped with meat, vegetables or seaweed: We queued for a bowl of ramen.^[10][2][9]
2. The quick-cooking noodles used for this dish, especially sold dried as instant noodles.^{[3][10][9][2]}

Related words

• chow mein

References

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