甲比丹

Japanese

Kanji in this term
甲	比	丹
か Grade: S (ateji)	ぴ Grade: 5 (ateji)	たん Grade: S (ateji)
irregular		on'yomi

Kanji in this term
甲	比	丹
か Grade: S (ateji)	ぴ Grade: 5 (ateji)	てん Grade: S (ateji)
irregular

Etymology

Orthographic borrowing from Literary Chinese 甲必丹 but altered with 比(ぴ) (pi). The Literary Chinese term is from Hokkien 甲必丹 (Kap-pit-tan), which is from Malay kapitan, which is from Portuguese capitam (“captain”). The カピテン (Kapiten) reading though comes from Dutch kapitein (“captain”).

Noun

甲比丹(カピタン) or 甲比丹(カピテン) • (kapitan or kapiten) 

1. obsolete spelling of カピタン／カピテン (Kapitan/Kapiten)