Karoshi, keiretsu enter Oxford English Dictionary.
LONDON, Jan. 17 KyodoTwo Japanese words -- karoshi and keiretsu -- have made it into the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for the first time, it was announced Thursday.
The business-related words are some of the several hundred new additions to the Oxford English Dictionary Online, which is currently being updated on a quarterly basis.
An OED spokeswoman said the words were included by OED lexicographers because of the frequency with which they had been appearing in the English-language media in Britain and in the rest of the English-speaking world.
OED defines karoshi as ''death brought on by overwork or job-related exhaustion'' and keiretsu, in the first instance, as ''a hierarchy of suppliers, subcontractors, etc. owned or part-owned by a parent company which they serve.''
A second, more popularly used definition the OED gives to keiretsu is ''a conglomeration of separate businesses linked together by cross-shareholdings in one another to form a robust corporate structure, highly resistant to take-over bids or drastic losses.''
In addition to the new words, OED Online now has an improved search engine which officials say will allow, for example, subscribers to search for all the words of Japanese origin which entered the English language in the 16th century.
The first edition of the OED was completed in 1928 and the online OED (http://www.oed.com), which is a subscription service, allows access to 20 volumes of the OED's second edition plus three volumes of additions. OED Online carries approximately half-a-million words.
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| Publication: | Japan Weekly Monitor |
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| Date: | Jan 21, 2002 |
| Words: | 245 |
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