人

In Japanese, a Chinese character reading meaning "man," "person," or "people."

For example:

日本人
nihonjin
"Japanese people/person"

白人
hakujin
"Caucasian" (lit. white person)

人為的
jiniteki
artificial, fabricated (lit. done by man)

The kanji character derives from a pictograph depicting a man standing.

Character index numbers:

• Henshall: 39
• New Nelson: 99

The character for 'jin', of course, derives from Chinese, as does its pronunciation. The modern Mandarin word is 'r¨¦n' (pronounced like 'zhuhn' in the second tone). The word for 'Japanese' is 'r¨¬b¨§nr¨¦n.' This quite productive morpheme in Japanese is also seen in other words like 'gai-jin', which derives from the Chinese word 'w¨¤ir¨¦n' which today means 'outsider (of a family, etc.)' in Mandarin.

Jin, Jinn (?), n.

See Jinnee.

"Solomon is said to have had power over the jin."

Balfour (Cyc. of India).

 

© Webster 1913.