obrigado

Interesting. I'd not run across that etymology before. Looked around on the web and found both sides supported, but mainly by assertion and not facts. My questions: is how exactly is the Portuguese obrigado pronounced? Is the b a stop or a bilablial fricative as in Spanish? Same with the d: stop or dental fricative? Was the phonology of 16th Portuguese similar to today's? The real test would be to see if the noun arigatou 'thanks, tahnk you' and its corresponding verb arigatai 'to be grateful, be blessed' were used before the arrival of the Portuguese. The Japanese obviously don't know about it or acknowledge it, because they do not write arigatou in katakana as for example loanwords like besuboru 'baseball' or waishatsu '(men's) dress shirt (lit., white shirt)'. I would expecxt something like oburiga(d)o.