Post #2528994

TIL: the Japanese word シャボン (SHABON) means "soap", and was borrowed from Spanish jabón in the early 1600s. There is also サボン (SABON), also "soap", but borrowed from Portuguese sabonete. SHABON was common in the Edo era (1603--1868) but from the Meiji era onwards, the formerly literary word 石鹸 (sekken) became common parlance, and now SHABON is only used in the word シャボン玉 (SHABON-dama), "soap bubble", which often gets abbreviated to just SHABON. And that's how I came across it (in the song 片思いファイター by GO!GO!7188) #Japanese