Where does the term "waifu" come from?


I was stalking a forum looking for images to nab to use as wallpapers, and
there was a post where posters were claiming characters as their "waifu".

Seeing how it is spelled, I would assume that what they mean is "wife";
however, it seems weird to use the term "waifu" rather than the normal
Japanese term for wife (my understanding is that it's "Tsuma" (妻); however, I
could be wrong).

So, where did the term "waifu" come from? If I am wrong, and "waifu" isn't
what I think it is, could someone explain what it is and where it came from?




# Origin

The prevailing wisdom1 is that the term "waifu" originates from a scene from
the 2002 anime [Azumanga Daioh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azumanga_Daioh);
specifically, [this scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AgDbAT56I0) from
episode 15.

Some context: the male character in that scene, Mr. Kimura, is a teacher at
the school the female characters in that scene attend. Mr. Kimura has a well-
deserved reputation for being generally perverse and possibly a pedophile.

A rough translation of the scene follows:

> **TAKINO Tomo** : What's this? A picture of a woman?
>
> **KASUGA Ayumu** : Wow, she's beautiful.
>
> **TAKINO Tomo** : Who is she?
>
> **KIMURA** : My wife.
>
> **All** : That can't be!

The astute listener will observe that Kimura uses the English words "my wife",
rather than a Japanese translation thereof (such as 妻2 _tsuma_ ). When the
words "my wife" are adapted to conform to Japanese phonological constraints
(e.g. no terminal /f/), and then re-expressed in a Japanese syllabary
(hiragana/katakana), the result is マイワイフ. Finally, when we romanize マイワイフ, we
get "mai waifu".

# Usage

The below graph shows that _usage_ of "waifu" on the internet was effectively
negligible until early 2007. This seems to suggest that "waifu" did not become
memetic until some time after Azumanga Daioh aired.

![Google Trends graph for "waifu", 2004 to
2013-08-11](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1L01m.png)

There is [evidence from the Animesuki
forums](http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=566857&highlight=waifu#post566857)
that "waifu" (in fact, "mai waifu") was being used in its modern sense (rather
than the literal standard-English "woman one is married to" sense) by May
2006. Interestingly, this appears to precede the rise in searches for "waifu"
on Google Trends. I'm not sure what this means, but it probably means
_something_.

# Husbandos

There is also a male counterpart to "waifu": **husbando**. Unlike "waifu",
"husbando" is not derived from Japanese3. Rather, it was developed by analogy,
as an idealization of how a Japanese speaker might pronounce the word
"husband". A "husbando" is basically the same thing as a "waifu", except male
rather than female.

The earliest citation I've found for "husbando" is from October 2007 (again,
[on
Animesuki](http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=1227051&highlight=husbando#post1227051)).
With some internet archaeology, I suspect it should be possible to show that
usage of "husbando" began as much as a year prior to this citation.

* * *

# Notes

1 I say that this is the prevailing wisdom, because I have no evidence that
"waifu" was not used prior to 2002.

2 The Japanese equivalent of "mai waifu", in terms of usage among otaku and
memeticity and so forth, is actually 俺の嫁 ("ore no yome", lit. "my bride").

3 [ハズバンド](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/176376/m0u/) _hazubando_
exists, but I'm almost certain this didn't directly give rise to English
"husbando". At most, it may have been an inspiration.




# Origin

The prevailing wisdom1 is that the term "waifu" originates from a scene from
the 2002 anime [Azumanga Daioh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azumanga_Daioh);
specifically, [this scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AgDbAT56I0) from
episode 15.

Some context: the male character in that scene, Mr. Kimura, is a teacher at
the school the female characters in that scene attend. Mr. Kimura has a well-
deserved reputation for being generally perverse and possibly a pedophile.

A rough translation of the scene follows:

> **TAKINO Tomo** : What's this? A picture of a woman?
>
> **KASUGA Ayumu** : Wow, she's beautiful.
>
> **TAKINO Tomo** : Who is she?
>
> **KIMURA** : My wife.
>
> **All** : That can't be!

The astute listener will observe that Kimura uses the English words "my wife",
rather than a Japanese translation thereof (such as 妻2 _tsuma_ ). When the
words "my wife" are adapted to conform to Japanese phonological constraints
(e.g. no terminal /f/), and then re-expressed in a Japanese syllabary
(hiragana/katakana), the result is マイワイフ. Finally, when we romanize マイワイフ, we
get "mai waifu".

# Usage

The below graph shows that _usage_ of "waifu" on the internet was effectively
negligible until early 2007. This seems to suggest that "waifu" did not become
memetic until some time after Azumanga Daioh aired.

![Google Trends graph for "waifu", 2004 to
2013-08-11](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1L01m.png)

There is [evidence from the Animesuki
forums](http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=566857&highlight=waifu#post566857)
that "waifu" (in fact, "mai waifu") was being used in its modern sense (rather
than the literal standard-English "woman one is married to" sense) by May
2006. Interestingly, this appears to precede the rise in searches for "waifu"
on Google Trends. I'm not sure what this means, but it probably means
_something_.

# Husbandos

There is also a male counterpart to "waifu": **husbando**. Unlike "waifu",
"husbando" is not derived from Japanese3. Rather, it was developed by analogy,
as an idealization of how a Japanese speaker might pronounce the word
"husband". A "husbando" is basically the same thing as a "waifu", except male
rather than female.

The earliest citation I've found for "husbando" is from October 2007 (again,
[on
Animesuki](http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=1227051&highlight=husbando#post1227051)).
With some internet archaeology, I suspect it should be possible to show that
usage of "husbando" began as much as a year prior to this citation.

* * *

# Notes

1 I say that this is the prevailing wisdom, because I have no evidence that
"waifu" was not used prior to 2002.

2 The Japanese equivalent of "mai waifu", in terms of usage among otaku and
memeticity and so forth, is actually 俺の嫁 ("ore no yome", lit. "my bride").

3 [ハズバンド](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/176376/m0u/) _hazubando_
exists, but I'm almost certain this didn't directly give rise to English
"husbando". At most, it may have been an inspiration.

