This week’s theme
Words borrowed from Japanese

This week’s words
bokeh
sensei
sayonara
origami
seppuku

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(or-i-GAH-mee)

MEANING:

noun:
1. The art of folding paper into various shapes.
2. An object made by folding paper.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Japanese origami, from ori (fold) + kami (paper). Earliest documented use: 1948.

NOTES:

Origami is not just folding paper cranes. Aliaksei Zholner has built a working V8 engine with just paper and gray matter: video (3 min.). I bow in his general direction. Origami has practical applications too. For example, in a folding airbag in a car to a solar-panel array on a satellite.

USAGE:

“But tasting exposes origami folds of scents and flavors.”
Andrew Ross; At The Garrison, ‘Thoughtful’ Food You Won’t Soon Forget; Portland Press Herald (Maine); Nov 10, 2019.

“A toothy man in dungarees grinned back at me. Slim sort, with a face creased in a thousand places, like an unfolded bit of origami.”
Dot Gumbi; The Pirates of Maryland Point; 2016.

See more usage examples of origami in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: