Etymology of 鞄 (かばん)


I recently learned of the Korean word 가방 ( _gaban_ ), which is supposedly
derived from 鞄 (かばん), but it seems there isn't much of a solid trail after
that.

From what I can tell, it might be related to the Chinese _jiābǎn_ , though
under the Korean entry for
[가방](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%EA%B0%80%EB%B0%A9#Korean), there's
mention of the Dutch _kabas_.

Wiktionary is too brief to be decisive here. Do we have a good guess as to the
etymology of かばん, and is it related to the Korean 가방, the Dutch _kabas_ , or
the Chinese _jiābǎn_?




> Wiktionary is too brief to be decisive here.

I'm an admin over there, and helped work on the [Japanese entry for
鞄](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%9E%84#Japanese). We seldom get the
chance to talk with users directly about the site, so I'm keen to find out
from you -- what kind of expansion of the etymology there would be helpful to
you? If you're open to longer discussion than a one-off comment below, please
do so [on my Wiktionary talk
page](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/User:Eirikr), since this particular topic
is outside scope for the Japanese Stack Exchange.

> Do we have a good guess as to the etymology of かばん, and is it related to the
> Korean 가방 ( _kabang_ )...

I'm not fluent in Korean, but what I can glean about 가방 is that it was a
borrowing from Japanese. See also the [Korean Wikipedia
article](https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B0%80%EB%B0%A9), or [this page on
Namu.wiki](https://namu.wiki/w/%EA%B0%80%EB%B0%A9#%EC%96%B4%EC%9B%90).

> ...[is かばん related to] the Dutch _kabas_...

From the Namu.wiki page, it seems like the National Institute of the Korean
Language views Dutch _kabas_ as the origin of the Japanese term, and a few
posts on the Korean "Naver" site (like [this
one](https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.naver?isHttpsRedirect=true&blogId=lafi21&logNo=220244569593))
follow suit. The Japanese-language [Daijisen entry on
Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636#E3.83.87.E3.82.B8.E3.82.BF.E3.83.AB.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.B3.89)
also mentions the Dutch term _kabas_ as another possibility.

However, this theory is problematic in multiple ways.

  * The Dutch word is more specifically Belgian Flemish ([1](https://www.woorden.org/woord/kabas), [2](https://gtb.ivdnt.org/iWDB/search?actie=article&wdb=WNT&id=M029363&lemmodern=kabas&Betekenis_id=M029363.bet.1)), apparently. Some mainstream monolingual Dutch dictionaries don't even include the word, like the [_Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek_](https://anw.ivdnt.org/search?type=simple&q=kabas).
  * The main meaning of the term seems to be "basket", in keeping with its [derivation](https://gtb.ivdnt.org/iWDB/search?actie=article&wdb=WNT&id=M029363&lemmodern=kabas&Betekenis_id=M029363.bet.1) in turn from Middle French [_cabas_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cabas#French) of similar sense. This doesn't overlap well with the Japanese term's attested meaning of "satchel", nor the kanji 鞄's earlier sense of "worked leather; leather bag".
  * The phonology is decidedly off -- that final //s// in the Dutch has no correlation with the final //ɴ// in the Japanese.
  * The Japanese term 鞄 with the reading _kaban_ and a meaning of "bag, satchel" isn't attested until 1877. This makes the semantic (meaning) and phonological (sound) changes required to go from Flemish _kabas_ ("basket") to Japanese _kabaɴ_ ("satchel") even less likely.

→ Ultimately, I think the Flemish term is an accidental kinda-sorta
resemblance, and not at all related. It's actually surprisingly easy to find
words in any two languages that kinda sorta sound similar and kinda sorta have
similar meanings -- and this gets even easier if you aren't that picky about
the sounds and the meanings lining up all that closely, as with _kabas_
("basket") and _kabaɴ_ ("satchel"). If you're interested in word origins and
comparative linguistics, I highly recommend you read ["How likely are chance
resemblances between languages?"](https://www.zompist.com/chance.htm) The
author even lays out a well-backed-up mathematical model for determining the
likelihood of such non-cognate similarities. See also [this other
post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/73488/5229) exploring any possible
connection between English _name_ and Japanese 名前 ( _namae_ ).

> ... or [is かばん related to] the Chinese _jiābǎn_?

Per the references cited in the Wiktionary entry (Daijirin [no free online
version I'm aware of], NKD [available via Kotobank
[here](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636)], Encyclopedia Nipponica
[entry
[here](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636#E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.A4.A7.E7.99.BE.E7.A7.91.E5.85.A8.E6.9B.B8.28.E3.83.8B.E3.83.83.E3.83.9D.E3.83.8B.E3.82.AB.29),
also on Kotobank]) and
[Daijisen](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636#E3.83.87.E3.82.B8.E3.82.BF.E3.83.AB.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.B3.89)
(not yet included in the Wiktionary entry's references), the connection with
Chinese 夹板 or 夾槾 keeps getting referenced as the likely source.

  * Phonologically, this makes some sense, considering the Japanese references' indicated reading of きゃばん and the pronunciation of Chinese languages like Min Nan's _kiap-pán_. A shift from きゃばん to かばん is much easier to explain as a change from palatal glide //ja// to //a//, a monophthongization. I notice too that [apparently](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A4%BE#Chinese) another Min Nan pronunciation for the 夾 character is _kap_.
  * Semantically, the Japanese resources describe the Chinese term as purportedly meaning something like "pressing together + board" in reference to a container or holder for documents, essentially a kind of briefcase (two flat stiff boards used to sandwich documents and keep them flat), which is also a closer match than the Flemish word for "basket".

→ In conclusion, while not definite (as the [Nipponica
entry](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636#E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.A4.A7.E7.99.BE.E7.A7.91.E5.85.A8.E6.9B.B8.28.E3.83.8B.E3.83.83.E3.83.9D.E3.83.8B.E3.82.AB.29)
itself calls out: 「語源【ごげん】はかならずしも明確【めいかく】でないが...」, "the etymology is not
entirely clear, but..."), the Chinese derivation seems the most likely.




> Wiktionary is too brief to be decisive here.

I'm an admin over there, and helped work on the [Japanese entry for
鞄](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%9E%84#Japanese). We seldom get the
chance to talk with users directly about the site, so I'm keen to find out
from you -- what kind of expansion of the etymology there would be helpful to
you? If you're open to longer discussion than a one-off comment below, please
do so [on my Wiktionary talk
page](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/User:Eirikr), since this particular topic
is outside scope for the Japanese Stack Exchange.

> Do we have a good guess as to the etymology of かばん, and is it related to the
> Korean 가방 ( _kabang_ )...

I'm not fluent in Korean, but what I can glean about 가방 is that it was a
borrowing from Japanese. See also the [Korean Wikipedia
article](https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B0%80%EB%B0%A9), or [this page on
Namu.wiki](https://namu.wiki/w/%EA%B0%80%EB%B0%A9#%EC%96%B4%EC%9B%90).

> ...[is かばん related to] the Dutch _kabas_...

From the Namu.wiki page, it seems like the National Institute of the Korean
Language views Dutch _kabas_ as the origin of the Japanese term, and a few
posts on the Korean "Naver" site (like [this
one](https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.naver?isHttpsRedirect=true&blogId=lafi21&logNo=220244569593))
follow suit. The Japanese-language [Daijisen entry on
Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636#E3.83.87.E3.82.B8.E3.82.BF.E3.83.AB.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.B3.89)
also mentions the Dutch term _kabas_ as another possibility.

However, this theory is problematic in multiple ways.

  * The Dutch word is more specifically Belgian Flemish ([1](https://www.woorden.org/woord/kabas), [2](https://gtb.ivdnt.org/iWDB/search?actie=article&wdb=WNT&id=M029363&lemmodern=kabas&Betekenis_id=M029363.bet.1)), apparently. Some mainstream monolingual Dutch dictionaries don't even include the word, like the [_Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek_](https://anw.ivdnt.org/search?type=simple&q=kabas).
  * The main meaning of the term seems to be "basket", in keeping with its [derivation](https://gtb.ivdnt.org/iWDB/search?actie=article&wdb=WNT&id=M029363&lemmodern=kabas&Betekenis_id=M029363.bet.1) in turn from Middle French [_cabas_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cabas#French) of similar sense. This doesn't overlap well with the Japanese term's attested meaning of "satchel", nor the kanji 鞄's earlier sense of "worked leather; leather bag".
  * The phonology is decidedly off -- that final //s// in the Dutch has no correlation with the final //ɴ// in the Japanese.
  * The Japanese term 鞄 with the reading _kaban_ and a meaning of "bag, satchel" isn't attested until 1877. This makes the semantic (meaning) and phonological (sound) changes required to go from Flemish _kabas_ ("basket") to Japanese _kabaɴ_ ("satchel") even less likely.

→ Ultimately, I think the Flemish term is an accidental kinda-sorta
resemblance, and not at all related. It's actually surprisingly easy to find
words in any two languages that kinda sorta sound similar and kinda sorta have
similar meanings -- and this gets even easier if you aren't that picky about
the sounds and the meanings lining up all that closely, as with _kabas_
("basket") and _kabaɴ_ ("satchel"). If you're interested in word origins and
comparative linguistics, I highly recommend you read ["How likely are chance
resemblances between languages?"](https://www.zompist.com/chance.htm) The
author even lays out a well-backed-up mathematical model for determining the
likelihood of such non-cognate similarities. See also [this other
post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/73488/5229) exploring any possible
connection between English _name_ and Japanese 名前 ( _namae_ ).

> ... or [is かばん related to] the Chinese _jiābǎn_?

Per the references cited in the Wiktionary entry (Daijirin [no free online
version I'm aware of], NKD [available via Kotobank
[here](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636)], Encyclopedia Nipponica
[entry
[here](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636#E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.A4.A7.E7.99.BE.E7.A7.91.E5.85.A8.E6.9B.B8.28.E3.83.8B.E3.83.83.E3.83.9D.E3.83.8B.E3.82.AB.29),
also on Kotobank]) and
[Daijisen](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636#E3.83.87.E3.82.B8.E3.82.BF.E3.83.AB.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.B3.89)
(not yet included in the Wiktionary entry's references), the connection with
Chinese 夹板 or 夾槾 keeps getting referenced as the likely source.

  * Phonologically, this makes some sense, considering the Japanese references' indicated reading of きゃばん and the pronunciation of Chinese languages like Min Nan's _kiap-pán_. A shift from きゃばん to かばん is much easier to explain as a change from palatal glide //ja// to //a//, a monophthongization. I notice too that [apparently](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A4%BE#Chinese) another Min Nan pronunciation for the 夾 character is _kap_.
  * Semantically, the Japanese resources describe the Chinese term as purportedly meaning something like "pressing together + board" in reference to a container or holder for documents, essentially a kind of briefcase (two flat stiff boards used to sandwich documents and keep them flat), which is also a closer match than the Flemish word for "basket".

→ In conclusion, while not definite (as the [Nipponica
entry](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9E%84-465636#E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.A4.A7.E7.99.BE.E7.A7.91.E5.85.A8.E6.9B.B8.28.E3.83.8B.E3.83.83.E3.83.9D.E3.83.8B.E3.82.AB.29)
itself calls out: 「語源【ごげん】はかならずしも明確【めいかく】でないが...」, "the etymology is not
entirely clear, but..."), the Chinese derivation seems the most likely.

