"The challenge is great; success depends only on the strength of our will,"
is how Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony Corporation, concludes his
biographical book, "Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony." Sony truly is a
translation of Akio Morita's willpower and vision. Born on Jan 26, 1921 in
Nagoya, Japan, in a family of sake brewers, Morita was more interested in
brewing of technology. In 1946, he co-founded a radio repair business in a
bombed-out department store that was eventually to become Sony, a name
synonymous with innovation and quality. He came up with the name Sony after
consulting several dictionaries and creating a derivative from sonus, Latin
for sound. He first considered the name Sonny but dropped it when he realized
that in Japan, "the word `sonny' would be pronounced as `sohn-nee' which
means to lose money." This week we remember him by picking words from his
aforesaid book.

"Synonymous" Sony: sounds sonorous.

'Cccept ssspoken sssibilantly.

OK. Can someone tell me how the Tagalog 'bundok' fathered today's word? How English got a Filipino loan-word? WWII maybe?

Oh anne--this is almost a YART. Tsuwm had boondocks in his list of favorite new words--i think it was one of the first threads i responded too-- Tsuwm credited the US Marines for introducing it to English-- (and i had heard the same) but the marines got it from Tagalog--

as for how it got into japanese-- (well those marine where in the boondocks fighting with someone....) it works as a japanese word, since the japanese tend to like constantant/ vowel combinations-- they have trouble with words like strawberry-- and the word they use is satarawaberi-- they just shove vowels in to the S T R blend-- but boon dok "works" in japanese. I never knew it was also used in Japan-- the only other word i know in English from Tagalog is Yo-yo.

Thanks, Helen. I'm also getting similar responses via private messages. Pity the folks who want to talk about each day's word don't do it here

Recruits in boot camp for the United States Navy are issued low-cut black leather boots with stiff soles which are called "boondockers." These shoes are made, I believe, by inmates in federal prisons. They are indestructible and one occasionally sees a twenty-year-old pair on some civilian and recognises instantly that, many years before, he was trained at Recruit Training Center San Diego or at Great Lakes.

Hey, BelM and all you other Francophones: I just read that the French langauge police have had some success in getting Walkman kicked out in favour of baladeur. Does this really get used conversationally?

When a child I learned the phrase "just a scoch" meaning "just a little bit" -- as when asked if I wanted milk in my tea.
Later when I first had contact with people fluent in Japanese I learned that "scochi" is a word in Japanese meaning a little bit. We pronounced it with a long "o" and the Japanese pronounced it the same way with the added "i" so it sounded like sko-she.
Perhaps it came to New England in the days of four masted schooners which sailed out of Salem, Massachusetts, went round the Horn and traded in Japan. Before the War of 1812-1814, Salem was the largest East coat port sailing to the Japans.
As a by the way : there is a marvelous museum -- the Peabody Museum of Salem (Mass.) -- which houses a treasure trove of magnificent artifacts from Japan and the Pacific Islands. I have taken Japanese friends to the Peabody-Salem and they are always amazed by the collection. Some things not ever seen in Japan. The museum's netsuke collection was world famed and they were on tour when in a California museum (San Diego I think) a robbery took place and many were stolen never to re-surface.
The Peabody-Salem still has a representative collection of netsuke and I am thankful I had the opportunity to see many of the now "lost" netsuke before they were stolen. Each a masterpiece and an exquisite example of the carver's art.
wow