任天堂

Chinese
 
to assign; to appoint; office
to assign; to appoint; office; responsibility
 heaven; paradise
trad. (任天堂) 任 天堂
simp. #(任天堂) 任 天堂

Etymology

Orthographic borrowing from Japanese 任天堂 (Nintendō).

Pronunciation

Proper noun

任天堂

  1. Nintendo (Japanese video game company)

See also

Japanese
Kanji in this term
任 天 堂
にん
Grade: 5		 てん
Grade: 1		 どう
Grade: 5
goon
Alternative spelling
ニンテンドー

Etymology

According to Hiroshi Yamauchi, the company name derived from the phrase 運を天に任せる (un o ten ni makaseru, literally “leave luck to heaven”).[1]

Other sources suggest the word 天 (ten, literally “heaven”) is the first character of 天狗 (tengu), a kind of monster in Japanese folklore which is sometimes connected to gambling and may therefore be a reference to the company’s initial product of hanafuda cards, thus yielding an interpretation of the company name as a “temple of trusted cards”.[2]

Proper noun

任(にん)天(てん)堂(どう) • (Nintendō) ←にんてんだう (Nintendau)?

  1. Nintendo (video game company)

Descendants
  • → Chinese: 任天堂 (Rèntiāntáng)
  • → English: Nintendo

See also

References
  1. Nintendo Archive Project (2021) “Chapter 1: Founding and Hanafuda Cards”, in History of Nintendo‎ (in Japanese)
  2. Brian Ashcraft (2017 March 8) “‘Nintendo’ probably doesn't mean what you think it does”, in Kotaku‎
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