Talk:基督

Borrowed from Japanese?
Hello, may I ask if there are attestations of 基督 in Japanese before 1837? I'm trying to see if 基督 is wasei kango as the etymology section of the Chinese entry claims. RcAlex36 (talk) 02:41, 24 March 2024 (UTC)


 * The NKD entry here at Kotobank gives an earlier citation of 1593, with a reading of, later changing to . The additional entry note there:
 *  日本伝来当時はキリシトであったが、江戸時代後期からキリストとなった. 中国イエズス会士によって、音訳語「基利斯督」およびその略語「基督」がつくられ、日本においても明治初年から、「基督」が当て字として新教系の刊行物（片仮名表記「キリスト」を採用した邦訳聖書を除く）で用いられ、明治中期までには一般的表記法として確立した. When first coming into Japan[ese], this was Kirishito, but [the reading] became Kirisuto from the late  [roughly the mid-1800s].  The phonetic transcription  (kirishito [in Japanese phonology]) and the abbreviation  were applied to this word by members of the Chinese Society of Jesus [a.k.a. ], and from the beginning of the, the 基督 spelling was used as ateji in protestant publications in Japan (excluding translations of the Bible into Japanese that used the kana spelling ), with this becoming the established general spelling until the mid-.
 * I've just updated the JA and ZH etymologies on the 基督 page, based on the Kotobank entry. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │Tala við mig 18:40, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I found a paper 宛字「基督」考 (1982) which discusses the etymology of 基督 and appears to form the basis of the NKD entry. If my understanding is correct, the Japanese word for "Jesus Christ" was rendered in hiragana in the late 16th and 17th centuries, while the Kanji form 基督 was not attested in Japanese until the Meiji era. However, certain Kanji forms like 契利斯督 and 吉利斯督 were used in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the former being borrowed orthographically from Chinese, and the latter being a fusion of 契利斯督 and 吉利支丹. 基利斯督 is found in the Chinese work 天主降生聖經直解 (circa 1636), and 基督 was contraction of 基利斯督, likely coined by (c. 1662 – 1707) in his Chinese translation of the New Testament titled 四史攸編耶穌基利斯督福音之會編. The term 基督 is not only preserved in the books Acts of the Apostles and Epistle to the Romans in Robert Morrison's manuscript of 四史攸編耶穌基利斯督福音之會編 (circa 1806), but it is also used in Morrison's own Chinese translations of the Bible, such as 新遺詔書. In Chinese, 基督 soon gained popularity and gradually replaced 基利斯督 in the mid-19th century. The Kanji form 基督 entered Japanese during the mid-Meiji period as a spelling of キリスト. RcAlex36 (talk) 07:52, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Fabulous, great to have this additional detail, thank you! ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │Tala við mig 22:46, 27 March 2024 (UTC)