yen

1. The unit of Japanese currency (symbol: ¥) since 1871, divided into 100 sen.

   Micron said in a statement that it would bring extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology to Japan, becoming the first semiconductor company to do so, and expected to invest up to 500 billion yen ($3.6 billion) with support from the Japanese government.

   2023 May 18, Reuters, “Chipmakers look to Japan as worries about China grow”, in CNN Business

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   Passing by those clauses of it which demand no notice, we arrive at that which provides that "each proposal (for purchase) must state the price per picul of rice in gold yen." But why in gold yen, a coin as yet so scarce as to be almost beyond the ken of the foreign merchant?

   Japan Meru Shinbunsha

   1872 February 24, “The Export of Rice”, in The Japan Weekly Mail: A Political, Commercial, and Literary Journal, volume III, number 8, Yokohama: ジャパンメール新聞社 [Japan Meru Shinbunsha], →OCLC, page 95, column 1

   Does any one however believe that Japan's glorious achievements would have been possible, if the Government of that country had merely poured money like water on its standing battalions, unaugmented by reserves, and the magnificent spirit of every man, woman and child in that country had not been behind the Army to support it? Japan's ordinary budget for the Army is only about 37.3 millions yen, or a little under six crores of rupees.

   1906 March 28, G[opal] K[rishna] Gokhale, “Budget Speech, 1906”, in Speeches of the Honourable Mr. G. K. Gokhale, C.I.E., Madras: Published by G[anapathi] A[graharam] Natesan & Co., Esplanade, published [1908], →OCLC, pages 171–172

   Taking the cue from his neighbours, Paul fed three 1000 yen notes into a machine beside the TV screen and the silent screen immediately exploded into a kaleidoscope of colours and instructions in Japanese below at least twenty pictures of sexy girls. […] Paul hesitated staring intently at the screen and the waiting girl while the 3,000 yen he had fed into the machine steadily dwindled at the rate of 50 yen a minute.

   2011, Rei Kimura, chapter 7, in Japanese Orchid, [Bangkok?]: Bangkok Books, →ISBN, page 38

2. A coin or note worth one yen.

   When banks lend, they create money out of nothing, without withdrawing it from other parts of the economy. This way, fiscal policy would not have crowded out private-sector activity yen by yen, as actually happened.

   2003, Richard Werner, “Preface”, in Princes of the Yen: Japan’s Central Bankers and the Transformation of the Economy, Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, →ISBN

plural yens

1. A strong desire, urge, or yearning.

   humankind's yen for knowledge

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   She repeated the words: "You for me and me for you," then hummed: "Two for tea and tea for two …" Her voice trailed off … "All I got is a yen for Diana and my sweet little cute little Zigzag."

   1934, Lew Levenson, chapter XX, in Butterfly Man, New York, N.Y.: Castle Books, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Castle Books, [1960?], →OCLC, page 208

   Like most middle-westerners, I have never had any but the vaguest race prejudices—I always had a secret yen for the lovely Scandinavian blondes who sat on porches in St. Paul but hadn’t emerged enough economically to be part of what was then society.

   1936 February, F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up”, in Esquire

   And Clocklan with a nurse for sure again. Always with nurses. Always with blonde hair. His maid has black and I guess he thrives on variety. And over there are some elderly ones with diamonds on their chests in lieu of the other things. Sometimes have a yen to get one of them in bed. Old age no object.

   1955, J P Donleavy, The Ginger Man, published 1955 (France), page 342

   If a fellow chooses to tell himself that his yen for the fetching young intern in his office and his concomitant disgruntlement with his aging wife's housekeeping lacunae make perfect Darwinian sense, who am I to argue with him?

   1999, Natalie Angier, “Of Hoggamus and Hogwash: Putting Evolutionary Psychology on the Couch”, in Woman: An Intimate Biography, New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 382

   Synonyms: craving, desire, hankering, jones, longing, urge, yearning

present singular third person yens · participle present yenning · participle past yenned · past yenned

1. transitiveTo have a strong desire for.

   Yenning, groaning, longing after.

   [1876, F[rancis] K[ildale] Robinson, A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Whitby (Series C. Original Glossaries, and Glossaries with Fresh Additions; IV), London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., 57 & 59, Ludgate Hill, →OCLC, page 227

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   "Listen, I'm in Tom Bleutcher's suite at The Brompton House. Been here the whole Almighty morning. Olga wants you to have lunch with us." / "Olga? Who's she?" / "His daughter. You made a big hit with her last time they was in town. Come on down." / "Get the new writer." / "I got no new writer. Anyway she yens for you. Come on down."

   1953, Alfred Bester, “Who He?”, New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, →OCLC, page 205

   C. S. Lewis warned, "The yen to publish is spiritually dangerous." The "yen" in this case is spread around, so perhaps the danger is diminished! This book has been "yenned" into existence by many, and is a two-team effort ….

   1992, Peter Jordan, “Acknowledgements”, in Re-Entry: Making the Transition from Missions to Life at Home, Seattle, Wash.: YWAM Publishing, →ISBN

1. slanguncountableOpium.

   Synonyms: aunti/aunti Emma, big O, chandu, Chinese tobacco, dopium, dream gun, dream stick, fi-do-nie

1. alternativeAlternative form of Yan (ancient kingdom)

   In 284 B.C., near the end of the Era of the Warring States, the state of Yen seized all but two of the more than 70 cities of the state of Ch'i. For five years, the loyal people of Ch'i defended those cities, namely, Chu and Chi-mo, against Yen's troops.

   1965 May 1 [1965 March 29], Chiang Kai-shek, “Documents: The President's Youth Day Message”, in Taiwan Today, archived from the original on 30 May 2023

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   [...]Nothing but War was to be ſeen among ſo many different States, and their mutual Invaſions reduced the Empire into ſeven great Kingdoms, which were called Tſin, Tſou, Yen, Tchao, Han, Iſi, Ouei: The Kingdom of Yen, which at that time comprehended no more than the preſent Province of Petche li, made itſelf very ſoon Maſter of the Province of Leao tong, and by puſhing on its Conqueſts by degrees towards the Eaſt, Corea was at laſt brought under the Authority and wife Government of Tchen pen: This Kingdom for a long time withſtood the ambitious Attempts of the King of Tſin, called Tſin vang, but at laſt it fell under his Power as the other ſix had done: Hi vang, King of Yen and of Corea, was defeated, taken and killed in the Year 259 before the Birth of Chriſt, according to the Chineſe Hiſtory, and Tſin vang was acknowledged for Emperor of all China by the Name of Tſin chi hoang ti.

   1739 [1735], P. Du Halde, “Geographical Obſervations on the Kingdom of Corea”, in The General History Of China, 2nd edition, volume IV, →OCLC, page 388

   9. Kingdom of Yen 燕 Táking situated in lat. 39° 54' N., long. 116° 28' E., one of the districts of Shuntien fú in Chihlí, now occupies the site of the capital of the ancient kingdom of Yen, the most northern part of the empire under the reign of the Chau dynasty.

   1849 August, “Annals of Confucius; or Chronology and Geography of the Chun Ts'iu”, in The Chinese Repository, volume XVIII, number 8, →OCLC, page 397

   At that time, twenty-two centuries ago, a gentleman named Ching K'o was getting scandalously drunk in the market place of the capital of Yen, a feudal state in northwest China which owed nominal allegiance to the Son of Heaven (i.e., the emperor) though, in fact, there was no unified Chinese state.

   1962, Leonard Cottrell, The Tiger of Chʻin: The Dramatic Emergence of China as a Nation, Holt Reinhart and Winston, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, pages 3–4

   The remaining major kingdoms (Han, Ch'u, Chao, Yen and Ch'i) searched for a means to stop the aggressive Ch'in, who appeared to have more in common with the Hsiung-nu than with the Chinese. The solution seemed to appear in the kingdom of Yen with the arrival of Ching K’o in 237.

   2001, George Fetherling, “CHING K'o”, in The Book of Assassins, Edison, NJ: Castle Books, published 2006, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 98

   Numbering among those that comprised a virtual defensive line along the 42nd degree of latitude, where the state of Yen would construct its border wall in the Warring States period, it dates to the late Shang or very early Chou and typifies settlements that fully exploit riverside locations and natural ravines while being oriented to open vistas.

   2011, Ralph D. Sawyer, Ancient Chinese Warfare, Basic Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 46