List of Japanese words of Portuguese origin

Many of the words which were introduced and entered the Japanese language from Portuguese and Dutch are written in kanji or hiragana, rather than katakana, which is the more common way to write loanwords in Japanese in modern times. Kanji versions of the words are ateji, characters that are "fitted" or "applied" to the words by the Japanese, based on either the pronunciation or the meaning of the word. The † indicates the word is archaic and no longer in use. ==List of indirect loanwords==

Some word pairs that appear similar are actually false cognates of unrelated origins. Arigatō It is often suggested that the Japanese word arigatō derives from the Portuguese obrigado, both of which mean "Thank you", but evidence indicates arigatō has a purely Japanese origin, so these two words are false cognates. Arigatō is an "u"-sound change of arigataku. In turn, arigataku is the adverbial form of an adjective arigatai, from older arigatashi, itself a compound of ari + katashi. Written records of arigatashi exist dating back to the ''Man'yōshū'' compiled in the 8th century AD, well before Japanese contact with the Portuguese in the 16th century. Ari is a conjugation of verb aru meaning "to be", and katashi is an adjective meaning "difficult", so arigatashi literally means "difficult to exist", hence "rare" and thus "precious", with usage shifting to indicate gratitude for receiving an outstanding kindness. The phrase to express such gratitude is arigatō gozaimasu, or arigatō for short. Other words not of Portuguese origin ==See also==