The etymology and meaning of Oss, Osu, Ossu


I am training at a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy, and their use of the word
"Oss" is ubiquitous.

I have asked and also answered the question [What is the etymology and meaning
of Oss?](https://martialarts.stackexchange.com/questions/7928/what-is-the-
etymology-and-meaning-of-oss) in the Martial Arts StackExchange forum.
However, I wanted to see if I could further clarify my answer by understanding
the Japanese to a greater degree. I would be grateful for any further
references.

What is the etymology and meaning of "oss"?




I've researched a little online and stumbled upon a few interpretations of the
origins of _oss_ but most of them seem to tackle it the wrong way. There are
actually two separate words that seem to be mingled into one but that most
Japanese seem to differentiate.

The _oss_ mostly used in martial arts is actually said differently from the
other word _'ss_. _'ss_ starts with a muted exhaling sound instead of an open-
mouthed "o" use in the _oss_ followed by the same dragging "ss".

### osu → oss

_Oss_ , as explained in other articles comes from 押忍, as used in sports in
general (baseball students or any other team that trains seriously tend to use
it here in Shikoku island) starts with an open mouth sound and finishes with a
dragging "ss".

### ...masu → mss → 'ss

The other similar word _'ss_ comes from an abbreviation of other words. Those
words can be shortened differently depending on the situation and urgency or
roughness. Roughness usually equates to determination for men/boys who shorten
_osu_ or the other words and is always said with conviction. I've never heard
a half-assed _'ss_ or _oss_... yet ;)

  * Onegaishimasu → Onuhashmass → uhmass → mss → 'ss
  * Arigato gozaimasu → agmassu → agmss → mss → 'ss
  * Ganbarimasu → ganbamassu → gamss → mss → 'ss
  * Yoroshiku onegaishimasu → yoroshknegaishmass → yoshmass → mass → 'ss

P.S.: I was surprised that no articles mentioned the word _ganbarimasu_ that
is widely used all around Japan and shortened the same way.

Compared to the _osu_ , two of those words are often used in the past tense
and that's where they become easy to differentiate since there is no past
tense for _oss_.

  * arigato gozaimashita, ganbarimashita → ... [various shortened versions] ... → 'shta*  
*Quite a few other words are shortened to _'shta_ since it's the common past tense conjugation.

## Context

Students and teachers using _oss_ everyday sometimes replace the common
_'ss/'shta_ with an _oss_ in many situations but not in all of them. People
not using _oss_ would normally _'ss_ or _'shta_ unless they want to show
ultimate determination by borrowing the _oss_ from competitive sports. It is
then a little out of place, since people around would know that the person
isn't involved in an activity usually using _oss_ , and would have a stronger
impact.

I guess it's a risky thing to use _oss_ for someone not able to "read the
mood" and the _oss_ might be perceived as a joke instead of determination if
not said with enough seriousness.

I think that Japanese can put up with a lot of misuses of the language as long
as it's not overused or continuous. I don't think that the general public
would take any offense in using _oss_ but since it's usually serious business,
the best thing is to look at the Japanese people present while saying it and
see if they look irritated. Once would be fine anywhere... but Japanese expect
people to realize it when they are annoying; reading body language/facial
expression is a necessity in Japan.

I hope my input helps to clarify the origins of _oss_ and its close neighbour
_'ss_. I am sure that if you start to listen carefully you'll "see" the
difference quite fast.




You've pretty much provided an elaborate answer to your question, but I'd at
least offer one of the more accepted explanation of its origin: an
abbreviation of the standard morning greeting,

> おはようございます → おはよっす → おわーす → おす → 押忍

as offered [here](http://gogen-allguide.com/o/ossu.html) and
[here](https://www.wikiwand.com/ja/%E6%8A%BC%E5%BF%8D) (Japanese).

