<p>Although the current usage of 怪兽 is dominated by the Japanese 'kaiju' concept, the word is probably not a Japanese creation. </p>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Xiangru" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sima Xiangru</a> (<a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%8F%B8%E9%A6%AC%E7%9B%B8%E5%A6%82" rel="nofollow noreferrer">司马相如</a>) used it in one of his works, <a href="https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E5%B0%81%E7%A6%AA%E6%96%87" rel="nofollow noreferrer">封禅文</a> (2nd century BC):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>然后囿驺虞之珍群，徼麋鹿之<a href="http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/newDict/dict.sh?cond=%C3%7E&amp;pieceLen=50&amp;fld=1&amp;cat=&amp;ukey=-1835515889&amp;serial=1&amp;recNo=15&amp;op=f&amp;imgFont=1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">怪兽</a>，䆃一茎六穗于庖，牺双觡共抵之兽，获周馀珍、放龟于岐，招翠黄、乘龙于沼。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The modern word 怪兽 was probably reintroduced into Chinese by Japanese filmmaking, as this word only shows up in Chinese after the late 1930s, which coincides with the emergence of the Japanese kaiju movies. </p>

<p><a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%E6%80%AA%E5%85%BD&amp;year_start=1800&amp;year_end=2000&amp;corpus=23&amp;smoothing=3&amp;share=&amp;direct_url=t1%3B%2C%E6%80%AA%E5%85%BD%3B%2Cc0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google Ngram</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiju" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>: </p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/lw1Ga.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-22T21:31:51.450Z
thanks!    Also do you mean the word is not seen until later 1930, which has a chance that it *might* have a chance it really comes from Japan kaiju movie?
My Life for Auir
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-22T21:38:46.733Z
Google Ngram is not comprehensive, of course. But try searching for something that has this word and is not related to movies, video games and other pop culture, and preferably predates the 1930s.
imrek
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-22T21:43:47.913Z
@MyLifeforAuir OK, actually, I take that back. There are some sources between the 2nd century BC and the 1930s, using this word (e.g. 镜花缘, 1827) In this case, the Japanese movies at least contributed to the popularity of the word, but this proves that the very word is not a loan word from Japanese, just as I pointed out in my answer.
imrek
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-22T21:58:19.937Z
very clear, that's indeed what I would like to confirm.  Chinese language has been influenced by Japanese culture in nowadays, it is hard to tell sometimes if a word is a loan word from Japanese or not.
My Life for Auir
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-22T21:25:35.730Z
2015-06-22T21:25:35.730Z
imrek
<p>While I understand the meaning of 怪獸 - Monster, it does not seems to be a word used in ancient time.  Moreover, it seems to be related to Japanese culture (kaij).  Is this term originate from Japan?</p>

<etymology>
Origin of word / term - 怪獸?
# Origin of word / term - 怪獸?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-06-22)

While I understand the meaning of 怪獸 - Monster, it does not seems to be a word used in ancient time. Moreover, it seems to be related to Japanese culture (kaij). Is this term originate from Japan?

**Tags:** etymology


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-06-22. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

Although the current usage of 怪兽 is dominated by the Japanese 'kaiju' concept, the word is probably not a Japanese creation.

[Sima Xiangru](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_Xiangru) ([司马相如](https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E5%8F%B8%E9%A6%AC%E7%9B%B8%E5%A6%82)) used it in one of his works, [封禅文](https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E5%B0%81%E7%A6%AA%E6%96%87) (2nd century BC):

> 然后囿驺虞之珍群，徼麋鹿之[怪兽](http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/newDict/dict.sh?cond=%C3%7E&pieceLen=50&fld=1&cat=&ukey=-1835515889&serial=1&recNo=15&op=f&imgFont=1)，䆃一茎六穗于庖，牺双觡共抵之兽，获周馀珍、放龟于岐，招翠黄、乘龙于沼。

The modern word 怪兽 was probably reintroduced into Chinese by Japanese filmmaking, as this word only shows up in Chinese after the late 1930s, which coincides with the emergence of the Japanese kaiju movies.

[Google Ngram](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%E6%80%AA%E5%85%BD&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=23&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2C%E6%80%AA%E5%85%BD%3B%2Cc0) and [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiju):

![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/lw1Ga.png)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: thanks!    Also do you mean the word is not seen until later 1930, which has a chance that it *might* have a chance it really comes from Japan kaiju movie?  
> **username_1**: Google Ngram is not comprehensive, of course. But try searching for something that has this word and is not related to movies, video games and other pop culture, and preferably predates the 1930s.  
> **username_1**: @username_0 OK, actually, I take that back. There are some sources between the 2nd century BC and the 1930s, using this word (e.g. 镜花缘, 1827) In this case, the Japanese movies at least contributed to the popularity of the word, but this proves that the very word is not a loan word from Japanese, just as I pointed out in my answer.  
> **username_0**: very clear, that's indeed what I would like to confirm.  Chinese language has been influenced by Japanese culture in nowadays, it is hard to tell sometimes if a word is a loan word from Japanese or not.  

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