Meanings
Bonin1
Bonin2
- An archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc administered as Ogasawara (a subprefecture of Tokyo prefecture, Japan).
Synonyms: Ogasawara Islands
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounAn archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc administered as Ogasawara (a subprefecture of Tokyo prefecture, Japan).
Origin
- Japanese無人島“desert island”
- FrenchBonin
- EnglishBonin
From French Bonin in an 1817 monograph on the islands by the French scholar Rémusat, misunderstanding Japanese 無人島 (mujintō, “desert island”) as a proper name for the Ogasawaras, misreading the kanji as the related pronunciation buninjima, and then mistranscribing the vowel into French.
More words from French, Japanese
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 小笠原
- 小笠原archipelago in the Western Pacific, part of Japan
Japanese 小笠原, 小笠原諸島
- 小笠原 (Ogasawara)archipelago in the Western Pacific, part of Japan
- 小笠原諸島 (Ogasawara Shotō)archipelago in the Western Pacific, part of Japan
- 小笠原群島 (Ogasawara Guntō)archipelago in the Western Pacific, part of Japan
Cite this entry
Bonin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Bonin
“Bonin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Bonin. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Bonin,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Bonin.
Source: Bonin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.