Etymology

Sino-Xenic

Today it means: Related to pronunciations for reading Chinese in Japan, Korea and Vietnam, originating in medieval times and the source of large-scale borrowings of Chinese words into Japonic, Koreanic and Vietnamese languages, none of which are genetically related to Chinese (excluding Sinitic topolects). Full definition →

Late Latin Sīnae ← Ancient Greek ξένος
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromξένος“foreign”
  2. Late Latin · derived fromSīnae“the Chinese”
  3. English todaySino-Xenic

From Sino- + xeno- + -ic, from Late Latin Sīnae (“the Chinese”) + Ancient Greek ξένος (xénos, “foreign”); coined by American linguist Samuel Martin in 1953.

Words from the same roots

Late LatinSīnae all →

Sinicsino-

Ancient Greekξένος all →

xenonxenophobicpyroxenexenophobetrogloxenexenacanthiformxenarthranxeno-xenogamyxenyl

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.