Friday, 11 November 2022

Do you speak a little Chinese when you say 'shanghai'?

'Shanghai' is a word borrowed from Chinese 'Shanghai'. The word entered the English language some time around 1871.


shanghai [verb] [1871]
  • to put aboard a ship by force often with the help of liquor or a drug
  • to put by force or threat of force into or as if into a place of detention
  • to put by trickery into an undesirable position
See 'shanghai' on the Loan Words Map

See more loan words from Chinese.

Etymology: China; from the former use of this method to secure sailors for voyages to eastern Asia
See more loan words from 1800s.


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