katana (English)

Where does "katana" come from?

English borrowed the word 'katana' directly from Japanese 'katana', referring to a single-edged, slightly curved traditional sword[1]. The Japanese term traces back through Old Japanese to reconstructed Proto-Japonic '*katana', with the character first attested in the Nihon Shoki of 720 CE[2]. It is widely understood to be a compound formed from 'kata', meaning 'one side', and an element 'na' denoting an 'edge'[2]. While this second part is traditionally associated with the Japanese character for 'blade', linguistic comparisons with Korean words for blade suggest it may ultimately stem from a Koreanic source[2].

Open questions

• The reading of the earliest written characters as the reconstructed Proto-Japonic form '*katana' relies on later phonetic glosses rather than direct early spelling. [2]
• The proposed origin of the element 'na' from a Koreanic word for blade, or from a reconstructed Old Korean coordinate term, remains a disputed hypothesis without direct Japanese attestation for that reading. [2]

Full etymology tree

• katana (English), 'A type of Japanese longsword, having a single edge and slight curvature, historically used by samurai and ninja.'
  • borrowed 刀 (katana) (Japanese), 'a single-edged sword, such as a katana'
    • inherited (Old Japanese)
      • inherited *katana (Proto-Japonic), 'knife'
    • compound 片 (kata) (Japanese), 'one side or part of a pair or larger set'
    • compound な (na) (Japanese), 'The hiragana syllable な (na). Its equivalent in katakana is ナ (na). It is the twenty-first syllable in the gojūon order; its position is な行あ段 (na-gyō a-dan, “row na, section a”).'
      • borrowed (Koreanic)

Ancestors

• katana (Japanese)

Descendants and derived words

• katanin (English)

Sources

1. katana (English) - Wiktionary
2. 刀 (katana) (Japanese) - Wiktionary

Updated October 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris