Etymology of Go

    Keywords: Culture & History

"Go" comes from Japanese igo 囲碁 which is the 呉音 (Go-on) pronunciation of the Chinese term weiqi 圍棋 (simplified: 围棋). 囲碁 are itaiji (異體字, variations) of 圍棋.

In Chinese, wei 圍 means "to surround" and qi 棋 (see ki character) means "pieces (of a board game)" (a term also used for Xiangqi, Fangqi and many other forms of Chinese board games); weiqi is thus "the game using pieces to surround".

囲 is the Japanese simplification of 圍. It is used in conjunction with the go character 碁 (棋, 棊 and 碁 are 異體字 (itaiji), variations of the same character) to refer to the game in Japanese.

See also names for go in other languages.


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