English Explanatory Dictionary

kanto girl

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An office girl.

Word forms

kanto girl kanto girls

Etymology

From kanto boy, but the latter term was replaced with girl as a female equivalent, whereas the former term was originally from Japanese 官庁(かんちょう) (kanchō, “government office”), borrowed in the Philippines during WW2 according to Potet (2016), but it was eventually replaced with Tagalog kanto (“corner, especially of two streets”), which was reinterpreted to refer to an "office corner".

Related words

kanto boy kanto lingo yosi boy takatak boy rugby boy call boy call girl
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