さん
Appearance
See also: ざん and Appendix:Variations of "san"
Japanese
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]For pronunciation and definitions of さん – see the following entries. | ||||
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(This term, さん (san), is the hiragana spelling of the above terms.) For a list of all kanji read as さん, see Category:Japanese kanji read as さん.) |
Etymology 2
[edit]Derived from 様 (sama).
Suffix
[edit]- title used after a person's name (family, given or full) or job title, or a company name, to show respect; Mr, Ms, Mrs, Miss
- Synonym: (honorific) さま (sama)
- 山田さん ― Yamada-san ― Mr/Ms Yamada
- あきらさん ― Akira-san ― Akira
- 山田あきらさん ― Yamada Akira-san ― Mr/Ms Akira Yamada
- 店員さん ― ten'in-san ― Sir/Madam (when talking to a shop clerk) (literally, “Mr/Ms shop clerk”)
- 運転手さん ― untenshu-san ― Sir/Madam (when talking to a taxi/bus driver) (literally, “Mr/Ms driver”)
- ソニーさん ― Sonī-san ― Sir/Madam (used in business by people meeting Sony)
- (colloquial) used after a shop name
- (polite) attaching to nouns or other nominals: a politeness marker that often has no direct translation, replacing copula です (desu)
Usage notes
[edit]- Using someone's name without a suffix may be considered rude; this usage is referred to as 呼び捨て (yobisute).
- When used after a job name that may refer to either the shop or the master depending on context, it does not restrict animacy. For example, both 「床屋さんが一軒ある。」 ("There is one barbershop.") and 「床屋さんが一人いる」 ("There is one barber (person).") are correct.
Descendants
[edit]See also
[edit]- 様 (sama) (more respectful)
- ちゃん (chan) (more familiar, especially of young women and children)
- 君 (kun) (more familiar, especially of men)
- 殿 (dono) (more respectful)
Okinawan
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Noun
[edit]さん (san)
Etymology 2
[edit]Generally held to be a combination of an adjective nominalizer suffix cognate to Japanese さ (-sa) and the verb 有ん (an, “to be, exist, have”).
Suffix
[edit]さん (-san)
- Terminal-form ending for inflected adjectives.
- 白さん
- shirusan
- It is white.
- 白さん
Categories:
- Japanese numerals
- Japanese lemmas
- Japanese hiragana
- Japanese suffixes
- Japanese affixes
- Japanese nouns
- Japanese proper nouns
- Japanese terms with usage examples
- Japanese colloquialisms
- Japanese polite terms
- Okinawan lemmas
- Okinawan nouns
- Okinawan hiragana
- Okinawan suffixes
- Okinawan terms with usage examples
- ryu:Landforms