Etymology

seppuku

sep·pu·ku
S1E1P3P3U1K5U1

Today it means: A form of ritual suicide by disembowelment using a blade, practiced by Japanese samurai, especially to rid oneself of shame, as a means of protest, or, formerly, as a method of capital punishment. Full definition →

Japanese 切腹
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Japanese · borrowed from切腹
  2. English todayseppuku

Borrowed from Japanese 切腹 (seppuku), from Middle Chinese 切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”). Compare Cantonese 切腹 (cit³ fuk¹) and Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.