![]() ![]() ![]() Townsend Harris, the first American consul to Japan, got the idea that the shogun's correct title was taikun, a Japanese borrowing from Middle Chinese elements equivalent to Beijing Chinese dà “great” and jūn “prince.” This word, in the spelling tycoon, became quite popular in America immediately before and during the Civil War as a colloquialism meaning “top leader” or “potentate.” (John Hay, President Lincoln's personal secretary-and later Secretary of State to Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt-referred to Lincoln as "the Tycoon.") After fading from use for several decades tycoon was revived in 1920s journalism with the narrower sense “a businessman of exceptional wealth and power,” a usage that continues to be part of English.ĭefinition: quick-cooking egg noodles usually served in a broth with bits of meat and vegetables Westerners in the initial period of diplomatic relations concluded that the shogun was a sort of secular emperor and the emperor something like the pope. Officially only a military deputy of the emperor, the shogun-a title shortened from seii-taishōgun, meaning “barbarian-subjugating generalissimo”-stood at the pinnacle of a feudal hierarchy based at Edo (later Tokyo) that effectively controlled the imperial court at Kyoto and ruled the country. #CLOSED HANDS OPEN HANDS JAPANESE SONG FULL#When the United States forced Japan to open full commercial and diplomatic relations with the West in 1854, the real ruler of the island nation was the shogun. While tycoon now most often refers to a very wealthy and powerful businessperson, the word has had two other uses in English as well. Mary McNamara, The Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. They become tech tycoons by creating a media platform on which unpaid users do the work, for hours every day, and they sell ads against it. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.2) a businessperson of exceptional wealth and power : magnate This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. That Explainer was reported by Juliet Lapidos.Ĭopyright © 2009 NPR. And politeness maven Emily Post included a detailed section on bowing in her 1922 book "Etiquette." By World War II, the bow was on its last legs, reserved mostly for debutant balls.īLOCK: Andy Bowers is a senior editor at Slate. Edith Wharton's characters bow to one another. An English visitor at the time complained that the lack of bowing made it hard to figure out the social status of people he met.ĭuring the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bowing signified membership in so-called polite society. ![]() Bowing took a further hit during Andrew Jackson's populist presidency in the 1830s. Thomas Jefferson liked to shake hands instead of bowing. The practice began raising hackles during the Revolutionary period when some considered it a vestige of a less democratic society. In the s, Puritan ministers, parents, school teachers, tutors and dancing masters instructed men to bow to women, inferiors to bow to superiors, and equals of higher social rank to bow to each other. ANDY BOWERS (Senior Editor, ): While it's hard to trace the history of a gesture, we know from written accounts there was a fair amount of bowing during colonial times. So, when did Americans stop bowing? The online magazine Slate found out for its Explainer column. That gesture is a standard formal greeting in Japan. At a meeting with the Japanese emperor, the president bowed. Earlier in his tour of Asia, President Obama did something that set his conservative critics howling. ![]()
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