Jap

See also: JAP, jap, Jap., and jap.

English

Etymology

Shortened from Japanese, attested as a noun since 1872, and adjectivally since 1878.[1] Compare Nip (shortened from Nippon).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dʒæp/
  • Rhymes: -æp

Noun

Jap (plural Japs)

  1. (derogatory, ethnic slur) A Japanese person.
    • 1872, James Brooks, A Seven Months' Run, Up, and Down, and Around the World:
      Among our Japs on board are two returning from Italy, where they have been with silk-worms' eggs, on cards, to sell. This has become a great speculation, and the Japs are going into it with zeal. The Japs almost always—always when they can—take cabin passages ; the Chinese seldom, or never.

Synonyms

  • Japanese (neutral; non-offensive)
  • Nip (pejorative, ethnic slur)

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

Jap (not comparable)

  1. (derogatory, ethnic slur) Japanese; of or pertaining to Japan or its people.

Verb

Jap (third-person singular simple present Japs, present participle Japping, simple past and past participle Japped)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of jap

Proper noun

Jap

  1. (slang, ethnic slur) The Japanese language.
    • 2007, Les A. Murray, Fredy Neptune (page 239)
      He petered out under Pitty's savage look: Do you speak Jap? Do you understand the world from inside those bastards' slanty-eyed little head-lopping poem-writing minds?
    • 2012, Robert Conroy, Rising Sun
      He said it in Japanese, which surprised the boy and stunned Cullen.
      “You speak Jap?” asked Cullen.
      “Looks like it, doesn't it?”

References

  1. Jap” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

Anagrams

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