Etymology

Hotei

H4O1T1E1I1

Today it means: The Chinese god Budai, the fat and happy god of abundance and good health, and one of the seven gods of luck. Full definition →

Japanese 布袋
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The story

  1. Japanese · derived from布袋
  2. English todayHotei

From Japanese 布袋 (Hotei), from Middle Chinese 布袋 (MC puH dojH, “cloth sack”) (compare Mandarin 布袋 (Bùdài), Vietnamese Bố Đại), by metonymy "Man with the cloth sack", the "Laughing Buddha" figure associated with the Maitreya Buddha.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.