samurai

Etymology

It is borrowed from Japanese 侍 (samurai, “warrior, knight; guard”),^[2][3][4][5] a variant of さぶらい (saburai),^[3] the noun of a verb meaning "to be in attendance, to serve".^[3][6] The American Heritage Dictionary analyses the older form of the word as a prefix of unknown meaning and a frequentative of a verb meaning "to guard".^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A member of the class of military retainers of the daimios in feudal Japan: 1727, in J. G. Scheuchzer's translation of Engelbert Kaempfer's History of Japan.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word was soon used more widely for a member of the military caste of Japan as a whole, the warrior aristocracy that provided the country's administrators and fighters until the 19th century.^[2][8][9] A figurative and transferred use, for someone compared with such a warrior, is recorded from 1905, in H. G. Wells's A Modern Utopia,^[2] and Evans's dictionary of Japanese loanwords quotes Newsweek (1992) on "the Japanese corporate samurai".^[10] The attributive use, "of the samurai", dates from the late 19th century.^[11][10]

Timeline

• 1727 – a military retainer of a daimio in feudal Japan.^[2][4][3]
• late 19th century – used attributively, of the samurai.^[11]
• 1905 – transferred and figurative use.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. In feudal Japan, a member of the warrior class that served the daimyos, bound by the code of bushido: The samurai carried two swords as a sign of rank.^[9][8][2]
2. The Japanese warrior aristocracy as a class.^[8][9][10]
3. A person likened to such a warrior, as a determined business executive.^[2][10]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the samurai: samurai armour.^[11][10]

Related words

• bushido
• daimyo

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e Evans, Tom (1997), A Dictionary of Japanese Loanwords, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press