Etymology
The word han first came into use by with scholars of Confucianism from the mid-Edo period onwards, in imitation of the feudal system of Ancient China, and became popularised around the time of the Meiji Restoration. While han was not used in any official capacity by contemporaries, it is now the established terminology in history for referring to the Tokugawa feudal system of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Read more about this topic: Han System
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)