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Etymology and origin of the English word yen

Dictionaries give the Japanese currency and the informal word for a craving numbered entries of their own; both came into English from East Asia in the 1870s.[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

yen1 Japanese currency

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1874
Borrowed from
Japanese 円
Ultimate origin
Chinese 圓

Etymology

It is borrowed from Japanese 円 (en, “round, circle”), written yen in the first European romanizations of Japanese,[6][1][7][5][2] from Chinese 圓 (yuán, “round, round object, circle; dollar”),[3][2][4][8][6] referring to the round shape of the coin.[6] The same Chinese word gave yuan.[6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Japanese monetary unit, or a coin representing it: 1874.[4] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1875, in William Stanley Jevons's Money and the Mechanism of Exchange.[10][3]

Semantic evolution

The yen has been the monetary unit of Japan since 1871, when it was worth about one United States dollar.[4] In American underworld slang yen was used for money or a dollar from 1908.[11]

Timeline

  • 1874 – the Japanese monetary unit.[4]
  • 1875 – in Jevons.[10][3]
  • 1908 – (US slang) money, a dollar.[11]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The basic monetary unit of Japan, divided into 100 sen.
  2. A coin or note worth one yen.

yen2 craving

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1876
Borrowed from
Cantonese 癮
Ultimate origin
Cantonese 癮

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Cantonese 癮 (jan5, “craving, addiction”),[4][2][9][5] originally in reference to the craving for opium;[5][12] the OED suggests that the forms “yin” and “ying” reflect the Mandarin pronunciation of the same character.[4] Merriam-Webster derives it through the obsolete slang yen-yen from 煙癮 (in-yăn, “craving for opium”), made of the words for opium and craving,[1][12] while Etymonline, Klein and Partridge point to a Beijing word for "smoke", that is opium.[3][13][14] Etymonline adds that it was reinforced in English by yearn.[3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A drug addict's craving, originally for opium: 1876, in Herbert Giles's Chinese Sketches,[4] where Barnhart and Etymonline record the form yin.[10][3]

Semantic evolution

According to Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, the word came to the United States with Chinese immigrants in the mid-19th century, and in 1886 a New York police official wrote of the "inyun" as a craving to be avoided; the syllables were later assimilated to yen-yen, then shortened to yen.[12] The general sense of a strong desire or longing for anything appears in 1906,[4][2][3] and the verb, at first for craving a drug, in 1919, in Mencken's The American Language.[4][11][10] The drug sense lived on in American slang,[11] and yen meaning opium itself is recorded from 1926.[4] Merriam-Webster notes that the word no longer suggests an urgent need and is seldom used now of an addict's craving.[12]

Timeline

  • 1876 – yin, a craving for opium.[4][10]
  • 1900 – yen-yen.[3]
  • 1906 – a strong desire or longing.[4][2]
  • 1919 – verb: to crave, to yearn.[4][10]
  • 1926 – opium.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (informal) A strong desire or longing: He had a yen to see the desert.
  2. (slang, dated) An addict's craving for a drug, originally opium.

Verb

  1. (informal) To yearn or long for something.
  • yuan
  • won
  • yearn

References

  1. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Yen.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/yen. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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