Kimono: 'Kimono' literally means 'a thing… | etymologist.ai
kimono
/kɪˈmoʊ.noʊ/·noun·1886·Established
Origin
English 'kimono' from Japanese '着物' (ki + mono, 'wear-thing') — literally 'a thing to wear,' narrowed to meanthe traditional robe.
Definition
A long, loose traditional Japanese robe with wide sleeves, tied with a broad sash; any similar garment.
The Full Story
Japanese19th centurywell-attested
From Japanese kimono (着物), a compound of ki (着, wearing) + mono (物, thing, object). Ki is thenoun form of kiru (着る, to wear, to put on clothing), from Old Japanese ki- (to wear). Mono (物) is a fundamental Japanese word for a concrete thing or object, from Old Japanese mono. Unlike most words in this database, kimono has no PIEroot — Japanese belongs to the Japonic language family, genetically isolated
Did you know?
'Kimono' literally means 'a thing to wear' — it is Japanese for 'clothing' in the most generic sense. The wordonlynarrowed to mean the specific traditional garment after Western clothes arrived in the Meiji era. A formal kimono can cost thousands of dollars and take
men and women. The word is transparent in its Japanese morphology: a thing (mono) one wears (ki). Key roots: 着 (ki) (Japanese: "wearing, putting on"), 物 (mono) (Japanese: "thing, object").