Eric in Plano, Texas, asks about skosh, his father’s word for a small amount, as in just a skosh more tea. The word comes from Japanese sukoshi, meaning small or little. English speakers often heard the first vowel as nearly silent and shortened sukoshi to skosh. It entered English after World War II, especially through U.S. military contact with Japan and Korea, and today it’s a casual, slangy word in North American English rather than formal standard usage. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Just a “Skosh” Comes from Japanese “Sukoshi” for a Small Amount”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, my name’s Eric Lyak. I’m calling from Plano, Texas.
Hello, Eric. Welcome.
Hi, Eric.
How are y’all doing?
Super.
We’re doing well.
And yourself?
You know, it’s Friday.
I have a question, and this is one of those things, those family things. My father has always used the word skosh, you know, growing up, and he’s pretty much the only person I’ve ever heard use it. And specifically, it’s for a request for a little bit. So, for instance, you say, Bob, do you want a little more tea? You’d say, yeah, just a skosh. And so my question is, where does this word come from? And my father spent some time in Okinawa. And there’s a Japanese term, sakoshi, that is similar. And I wonder if there’s a relationship between his time in Japan and the use of this word.
Was he in the military?
Yes, he was in the Marine Corps.
And this was in the post-World War II period, the 1950s?
This would be in the early 60s.
Okay.
Yeah, it does come to English from Japanese, and I wouldn’t be surprised if your father picked it up in Japan. The word in Roman characters, if you’d spelled it with our alphabet instead of theirs, it’d be S-U-K-O-S-H-I, and it means small or short or little or something along those lines. But usually the U is not pronounced. It’s kind of a voiceless sound, so it’s skoshi, something like that. And then the Americans just abbreviate it even further to skosh. It really doesn’t come into English until, like we were saying, until the post-World War II period, the 1950s or so. Interestingly, the word also exists in a kind of pigeon spoken in Korea. And so many American soldiers picked it up during their service in South Korea and not in their service in Japan.
Oh, okay. Well, I have an uncle who served in the Korean War, so maybe an older uncle, so maybe that’s where he got it from.
Oh, it’s possible, yeah.
So he uses it too, huh?
But the word is so widespread in North American English now that most people don’t even realize that it has that sort of history. They just assume maybe it’s a Spanish word or that it came from a Native American language. But no, it’s Japanese.
So this is a widely used word. I just thought it was a peculiarity of my father.
Well, it’s a widely used word. I wouldn’t call it standard English yet. I would say that it’s still a little slangy, but I think you’ll hear this, for example, on the morning television shows. It’s the kind of language that would be perfectly natural in the mouth of somebody speaking casually or talking about food or furniture or clothing or something.
Okay, so like Martha Stewart would use it.
Yeah, sure. You’re probably not going to hear it on the floor of the Senate. Will the gentleman from Wyoming please move over our skosh? Nobody’s going to say that.
Okay.
Not yet.
Not yet. Super duper. Thank you so much, Eric.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye, Eric.
Well, did one of your parents say something that left you puzzled? Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or you can always email us. That address is words@waywordradio.org.
