By Kathy Hughes
Contributing Writer
“Know-it-alls” are not expected to have a sense of humor, especially when it comes to being shown up for a mistake. Although I have been accused of being a know-it-all, and have readily admitted to such tendencies, sometimes I find being wrong an opportunity for a good laugh; and, of course, being wrong is very educational.
Recently, I was looking up some word origins that I thought might be interesting, when I was startled by an article listing “10 Japanese Words used in English.”
Actually, I would think there are hundreds of Japanese words used in English, and they are pretty obvious: sake, kimono, soy, geisha, karaoke, etc. What surprised me was the word at the top of the list, “honcho.” “Honcho?” Why, you could have knocked me over with a feather — I would have sworn, I had absolutely assumed the word was Spanish. Afterall, it rhymes with poncho — really, it’s Japanese?
It turns out that honcho, “hancho” in Japanese, entered the English language after World War II, being introduced by servicemen and women who had been held as prisoners of war in Japan. A “hancho” is a squad leader, or chief, and it must be certain that every POW camp had at least one.
Although the typical use in English is “head honcho,” which is redundant, it should be forgivable since this often happens with borrowed words. The repetition serves both as emphasis and a clarification.
I found it humorous that I could have been so far off all this time, and it was great to learn something new. Another feather added to my know-it-all hat!
