Cool Japanese Word – 十字軍
By thomas on Apr 2, 2009 in Japanese
The character 十 (juu) normally means ten, but not in this case. Here it’s coupled with 字 (ji) which means character/letter. It’s the same ji in kanji (漢字) and romaji (ローマ字). Put 十 and 字 together and you get 十字 (juuji), which means cross, as in a cross-shape. It often refers to the Christian cross symbol.
軍 (gun) means army or war. It’s the same gun we see in Shogun (将軍 – leader + army/war = general).
十字軍 (juujigun – cross + army/war) is the Japanese word for the Crusades.
How do you say the Crusades in your language? (or the language you are studying?) Leave a comment and let us know!
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We say “Haçlı Seferleri” in Turkish.
haç = cross
haçlı = one who has a cross
sefer = campaign
haçlı seferi = crusade
haçlı seferleri = the crusades
Noa | Apr 2, 2009 | Reply
De Kruistocht/De Kruistochten (in Dutch)
Kruis = cross
Tocht = journey
In Spanish:
La cruzada – here you can see the word “cruz” which means “cross”.
In Koine Greek? I don’t know ;-).
Ramses | Apr 2, 2009 | Reply
In German: Kreuzzug
Kreuz = cross
Zug could be easily translated with “train”, but it is the substantivation of ziehen wich again could be “pull” but is also an older form of “motion/travel/going somewhere”
Where you find you went full circle again why the transport method of a train on tracks is “Zug” in German. Also consider that this use of word will not have originated at the steam age, but a wagon trek of horse-drawn carriages was a Wagenzug. The english word road-train points in exactly this direction
And “train” is from trahere = pull anyways, isn’t it?
Manuel | Apr 2, 2009 | Reply
Chinese is the same as Japanese: 十字军 (shízìjūn).
Vincent Pace | Apr 2, 2009 | Reply
In Estonian: ristiretk, ristisõda
rist – cross
retk – journey
sõda – war
Two terms are being used interchangeably, though ristisõda, or -war is mostly being used when speaking of historical events, and -journey is being used when speaking figuratively, like in “his personal crusade against X”.
aabram | Apr 2, 2009 | Reply
My guess at the Greek word: Σταυροφορίες
I got this by going to the English wikipedia article for the Crusades (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades), and then found the corresponding Greek article by clicking the Ελληνικά in the left sidebar.
I’m not studying modern Greek and I doubt this was a word in Koine Greek, so I’m not 100% about this.
peter | Apr 2, 2009 | Reply
@Peter:
I guess it’s Modern Greek. Although there’s a link between Koine and Modern Greek vocabulary, the differences are still huge.
Ramses | Apr 5, 2009 | Reply
In Polish two terms are used:
1) krucjata – it comes from medieval Latin ‘cruciata’, probably through Italian ‘crociata’
2) wyprawa krzyżowa – it translates ‘crucial quest, crucial expedition’ (crucial meaning ‘of the cross, cross-like’ rather than ‘decisive, critical’)
Great blog – I hope you will not mind me following it occasionally.
Piotrek | Apr 6, 2009 | Reply
In Lithuanian:
kryžiaus žygiai – literally “marches of the cross”
In Portuguese:
a cruzada (same as Spanish, it seems)
lyzazel | Apr 15, 2009 | Reply
In Russian, крестовый поход.
крест – cross, noun
крестовый – [related to] cross, adjective
поход – trip, journey
Emma | Jun 22, 2009 | Reply