sushi

Etymology

It is borrowed from Japanese 寿司 (sushi).^[2][3][4][1] The American Heritage Dictionary traces it to an Old Japanese word for salted fish preserved in fermenting rice, possibly a noun use of an adjective meaning sour,^[5] and Wiktionary derives it from 酸し (sushi), an archaic form of 酸い (sui, “sour”).^[1] Dictionary.com glosses it literally as "it is sour".^[6] The American Heritage Dictionary relates the element meaning sour to the Japanese word for vinegar, which may be imitative or from a Chinese word for vinegar.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Japanese dish of small balls of cold boiled rice flavoured with vinegar and topped with fish or egg: 1893, in A. M. Bacon's Japanese Interior.^[2][3][4] Etymonline finds it earlier, in 1875, in the compound sushi ya, a seller of sushi.^[7]

Semantic evolution

According to Etymonline the word is said to have referred originally to the vinegared rice, not to the raw fish that usually tops it.^[7] Modern dictionaries describe vinegared rice shaped in various ways and garnished with raw seafood, vegetables or egg.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 1875 – sushi ya, a seller of sushi.^[7]
• 1893 – the dish.^[2][3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Japanese dish of cold rice flavoured with vinegar, shaped into small cakes or rolls and topped or filled with raw fish, other seafood, vegetables or egg.^[3][9][2][8]

Related words

• sashimi

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins