ネズミ講

Japanese

Kanji in this term
講
こう Grade: 5
kan'on

Etymology

Compound of ねずみ算 (nezumi-zan, “exponential growth”) +‎ 講 (kō, “association”).^[1]^[2]

Pronunciation

(Tokyo) ねずみこー [nèzúmíkóó] (Heiban – [0])^[2]
IPA^(key): [ne̞zɨmʲiko̞ː]

Noun

ネズミ講(こう) • (nezumikō) ^{←ねずみかう (nezumikau)^?}

(colloquial) a pyramid scheme

Synonyms

無(む)限(げん)連(れん)鎖(さ)講(こう) (mugen rensakō, legal term, literally “infinite chain association”)

References

^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN