honcho
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Japanese 班長 (はんちょう, hanchō, “squad leader”), from 19th c. (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Mandarin bānzhǎng 班長 "team leader". Probably entered English during World War II: many apocryphal stories describe American soldiers hearing Japanese prisoners-of-war refer to their lieutenants as "hanchō".
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 333: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. enPR: hŏnʹchō, IPA(key): /ˈhɑn.tʃoʊ/, Hyphenation: HAHN-choh
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 333: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. enPR: hŏnʹchō, IPA(key): /ˈhɒn.tʃəʊ/, Hyphenation: HON-choh
- Rhymes: -ɒntʃəʊ
Noun
honcho (plural honchos)
- (informal) boss, leader
- 1983: Max Von Sidewinder (aka Sydow) is back to play Spectre's head honcho, only now we see his face! — net.movies, 7 Nov 1983
- 2001: Gulfstream makes jets for both Hollywood honchos and foreign governments like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. — Michael Moore, Stupid White Men, 2001, p.22
Derived terms
Verb
honcho (third-person singular simple present honchos, present participle honchoing, simple past and past participle honchoed)
- (transitive, informal) To lead or manage.
Japanese
Romanization
honcho
Categories:
- English terms derived from Japanese
- English terms derived from Mandarin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɒntʃəʊ
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English informal terms
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- Japanese non-lemma forms
- Japanese romanizations