Etymology

kendo

K5E1N1D2O1

Today it means: A Japanese martial art using "swords" of split bamboo. Full definition →

Japanese 剣道 ← Middle Chinese 劍
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The story

  1. Middle Chinese · derived from劍“sword”
  2. Japanese · borrowed from剣道“the way of the sword”
  3. English todaykendo

Borrowed from Japanese 剣道 (kendō, “the way of the sword”), from Middle Chinese 劍 (kjæ̀m, “sword”) + 道 (dáu, “way”). Doublet of kumdo.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.