タバコ

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. ここでタバコを吸わないでください。▶ —
   Please don't smoke here.
2. タバコをやめました。▶ —
   I quit smoking.

Collocations

Mnemonic

Tabako (タバコ·煙草) entered Japanese in the 16th century via Portuguese missionaries — etymology Portuguese tabaco < Spanish < Arawak "tabaco" of the Caribbean. Seeds likely arrived alongside firearms in 1543 (teppou-denrai). Domestic cultivation began in the 17th-century Edo period, and the kanji 煙草 (smoke-grass, ateji = sound-borrowed kanji) was settled then. Katakana タバコ marks the gairaigo; kanji 煙草 carries the meaning — both coexist. Japan's smoking policy shifted sharply with the April 2020 Health Promotion Law Amendment — restaurants are no-smoking by default, smoking confined to bun-en (segregated) venues. Male smoking rate fell from 49.4 percent (1965) to 16.7 percent (2022). Public-space vocabulary ladder: kin-en (no-smoking), bun-en (separated zones), kitsuen-jo (smoking room). Korean "dam-bae" came via Portuguese "tabaco" → Chinese transmission → "dam-ba-go" → "dam-bae"; Chinese keeps the kanji 煙草 / yancao.

Quick check

1. Transmission path of tabako's etymology?

   • Arawak (Caribbean) → Spanish → Portuguese → Japan 16th c.
   • Chinese kanji etymology
   • Sanskrit (India)
   • Arabic etymology