Etymology

Nintendinitis

Nin·ten·din·i·tis
N1I1N1T1E1N1D2I1N1I1T1I1S1

Today it means: A form of repetitive strain injury, which may include tendinitis, affecting the thumbs or other fingers of frequent video gamers, often from the excessive use of the d-pad on a game controller. Full definition →

First used 1990English tendinitis ← New Latin tendin- ← Latin tendō
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The story

  1. Japanese運
  2. Japaneseを
  3. Japanese天狗 (tengu)?
  4. Japanese天
  5. Japaneseに
  6. Japanese任せる
  7. Japanese運を天に任せる (un o ten ni makaseru)
  8. Japanese任天堂
  9. EnglishNintendo
  10. Proto-Indo-European*ten-der.?
  11. Ancient Greekτένων (ténōn)
  12. Latintendō
  13. New Latintendin-
  14. Englishtendinitis
  15. English todayNintendinitis

Blend of Nintendo (“Japanese video-game company”) + tendinitis (“inflammation of a tendon”), possibly coined by Richard Brasington in a 1990 letter to the editor of the The New England Journal of Medicine: see the quotation.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1990 A form of repetitive strain injury, which may include tendinitis, affecting the thumbs or other fingers of frequent video gamers, often from the excessive use of the d-pad on a game controller.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.