Yen

How to spell yen

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce yen

What does yen mean?

1. nounThe basic monetary unit of Japan.
2. nounA strong desire or craving for something.

Yen in a sentence

• The hotel bill came to forty thousand yen.

• After years in the city he felt a sudden yen for the quiet countryside.

• She changed her dollars into yen before flying to Tokyo.

• She had a real yen for chocolate after dinner.

Where does yen come from?

Language of origin: Japanese

The word actually carries two unrelated histories under one spelling. The currency sense comes from Japanese, where the unit was called en, meaning 'round' or 'circle', a nod to the round shape of the coins; the spelling 'yen' reflects an older Japanese pronunciation that English picked up in the mid 1800s when the currency was established. The other sense, an intense craving, comes from Chinese, most likely Cantonese yan, originally describing a craving for opium among workers who carried the word into English in the late 1800s; over time it softened into any sharp longing. The two threads were eventually spelled the same way in English purely by coincidence of sound. Because the word is short and phonetically regular, the only real surprise is that such a tidy little spelling sits on top of two separate Asian languages. That double origin is a handy memory hook: round coins from Japan, deep longing from China, both landing as 'yen'.

How the word is built

• yen (single root word; currency sense from Japanese en 'round', craving sense from Chinese yan 'craving')