任天堂

Chinese

to assign; to appoint; office
to assign; to appoint; office; responsibility
 
 heaven; paradise
trad. (任天堂) 任 天堂
simp. #(任天堂) 任 天堂

Etymology

Orthographic borrowing from Japanese 任天堂 (Nintendō).

Pronunciation

Proper noun

任天堂

  1. Nintendo (Japanese video game company)

See also

Japanese

Kanji in this term
任 天 堂
にん
Grade: 5 		てん
Grade: 1 		どう
Grade: 5
goon
Alternative spelling
ニンテンドー

Etymology

According to Hiroshi Yamauchi, the company name is derived from the phrase 運を天に任せる (un o ten ni makaseru, literally “leave luck to heaven”).[1]

Other sources suggest the word 天 (ten, literally “heaven”) is the first character of 天狗 (tengu), a kind of monster in Japanese folklore which is sometimes connected to gambling and may therefore be a reference to the company’s initial product of hanafuda cards, thus yielding an interpretation of the company name as a “temple of trusted cards”.[2]

Pronunciation

  • (Tokyo) にんてんどー [nìńtéńdóó] (Heiban – [0])
  • IPA(key): [ɲ̟ĩntẽ̞ndo̞ː]

Proper noun

任(にん)天(てん)堂(どう) • (Nintendō) ←にんてんだう (Nintendau)?

  1. Nintendo (video game company)

Descendants

  • → Chinese: 任天堂 (Rèntiāntáng)
  • → English: Nintendo
  • → Spanish: nintendo

See also

References

  1. ^ Nintendo Archive Project (2021) “Chapter 1: Founding and Hanafuda Cards”, in History of Nintendo‎[1] (in Japanese), archived from the original on 7 June 2021
  2. ^ Brian Ashcraft (8 March 2017) “‘Nintendo’ probably doesn't mean what you think it does”, in Kotaku‎[2], archived from the original on 21 February 2024
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