Etymology of Go
"Go" comes from Japanese igo 囲碁 which in turn comes from Chinese weiqi 圍棋 (simplified: 围棋).
In Chinese, wei 圍 means "surrounding" and qi 棋 means "game" (and is used for Chinese chess); weiqi is thus "the game of surrounding".
In Japanese i 囲 corresponds to wei 圍 and also means "surrounding"; go is the Japanese pronunciation of 棋 but in Japanese 棋 is used for shogi so the variant 碁 is used instead.
(i is the onyomi for 囲; the
kunyomi for 囲 is kako, used in the word kakomu 囲む "to surround". 碁 has onyomi go and gi but no kunyomi. Note that the radical at the bottom of 碁 is ishi 石 "stone".)
See also
- Ko etymology discussion
- Metaphorical Names for the Game of Go
- Names for Go in Other Languages
- Shudan
About this Page
Material from Andre Engels, unkx80 and doraguma based on a question from Jan at Messages to people currently present in the library.
WikiMasterEdit by Andre Engels and Gareth.