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From: Mark Barton <mbarton@icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
Subject: Re: Dialect/Language
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In article <3p9cke$jcm@clarknet.clark.net> *Expletive Deleted*, 
thedavid@clark.net writes:

>Which reminds me: a Chinese friend said that the "Japanese" (WW2)
>characters for "kamikaze" could also mean "mentally ill."  True???

It's conceivable. "Kamikaze" etymologically means god-wind, and both
halves of the word are native Japanese roots. The character used for kami
has a Chinese-derived pronunciation of "shin", as in Shintou
(="god-way"), the religion. It also has a borrowed meaning of "nerve" as
in shinkei (="nerve"), which shades off into mental illness, as in
seishin'ijousha (="psychotic"). 

That said, there's no hint of it in my Japanese dictionary. As likely as
not these extended meanings for "shin" became associated with the
character in China and were imported into Japanese. So it's probably a
Chinese word your friend is thinking of.

Cheers,

Mark B.
