tycoon：来自日语的“大亨”

When English speakers talk about a powerful businessperson – a "media tycoon" or a "property tycoon" – most of them have no idea that they're using a word from Japanese. In the 1850s, Japan was opening up to the outside world after more than 200 years of strict isolation. In 1853, American warships led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Japan and demanded that the country begin to trade with the United States. At that time, Japan's real ruler was not the emperor but the shogun, the country's top military leader. When dealing with foreign governments, Japanese officials described the shogun with the title taikun (大君), meaning "great lord". It was a way of making him sound important and on an equal level with foreign rulers. Foreigners picked up the word, and English speakers wrote it as "tycoon". Back in the United States, people started using it as a nickname for powerful leaders. During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's private secretaries jokingly called him "the Tycoon". Japan's shogun system came to an end in 1868, but the word lived on in English. After the First World War, it began to be used for the wealthy businessmen who were building huge companies in industries like oil, steel and railways. Today, you'll often hear about tech tycoons, shipping tycoons and fashion tycoons. Japanese has given English many other words, too, from "tsunami" and "karaoke" to "sushi" and "emoji". But "tycoon" may be the only one that started life as a title for a Japanese ruler.