Japanese 'gei' (art) + 'sha' (person) — literally 'art person,' emphasizing trained artistry; the first geisha were actually men.
A Japanese hostess trained to entertain men with conversation, dance, and song.
From Japanese "geisha" (芸者), a compound of "gei" (芸, art, performance, skill) and "sha" (者, person, practitioner). The element "gei" derives from Middle Chinese "ŋɨeiH" (art, craft, talent), borrowed into Japanese during the cultural transmission of Chinese civilisation. The Chinese character 芸 originally depicted a plant (rue, used in rituals) and was later extended metaphorically to mean cultivation of skill, reflecting the Confucian concept that artistic accomplishment is analogous to tending a garden. The element "sha" (者) is one of the most common agentive suffixes in Sino-Japanese vocabulary, equivalent to Latin "-tor" or English
'Geisha' literally means 'art person' — the word's emphasis is on artistic mastery, not on sexuality or servitude. Geisha undergo years of rigorous training in traditional Japanese arts: dance, music (particularly the shamisen), singing, flower arrangement, tea ceremony, and the art of conversation. The first geisha were actually men — male entertainers who performed in the pleasure quarters of 18th-century Edo. Female geisha appeared later and eventually came to