English Explanatory Dictionary

Bonin

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. A surname from French.
name
  1. An archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc administered as Ogasawara (a subprefecture of Tokyo prefecture, Japan).

Word forms

Bonin Bonins

Etymology

From French Bonin in an 1817 monograph on the islands by the French scholar Rémusat, misunderstanding Japanese 無人島 (mujintō, “desert island”) as a proper name for the Ogasawaras, misreading the kanji as the related pronunciation buninjima, and then mistranscribing the vowel into French.

Synonyms

Ogasawara Islands

Derived words

Boniner Bonin greenfinch Bonin Islander Bonin Islands Boninite Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc
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