Etymology

mahjong

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Today it means: A game (originally Chinese) for four players, using a collection of tiles divided into five or six suits. Full definition →

Chinese 麻將
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The story

  1. Chinese · borrowed from麻將
  2. Chinese · borrowed from麻將
  3. English todaymahjong

From Mandarin 麻將／麻将 (májiàng), derived from 麻雀 (máquè, “sparrow”) with a Wu diminutive suffix 兒／儿 /ŋ̍/.

Words from the same roots

Chinese麻將 all →

sparrow dominoes

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.