Bonin

English

Etymology 1

Proper noun

Bonin (plural Bonins)

1. A surname from French.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Bonin is the 8226^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 4034 individuals. Bonin is most common among White (93.63%) individuals.

Etymology 2

From French Bonin in an 1817 monograph on the islands by the French scholar Rémusat, misunderstanding Japanese 無人島 (mujintō, “desert island”) as a proper name for the Ogasawaras, misreading the kanji as the related pronunciation buninjima, and then mistranscribing the vowel into French.

Proper noun

Bonin

1. An archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc administered as Ogasawara (a subprefecture of Tokyo prefecture, Japan).

Synonyms

• Ogasawara Islands (Japanese contexts)

Hypernyms

• Ogasawara Subprefecture (the prefecture includes the nearby Volano Islands)

Hyponyms

• Chichijima, Hahajima

Derived terms

• Boniner
• Bonin Islander
• Bonin Islands
• Boninite
• Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc

 

Translations

archipelago in the Western Pacific, part of Japan

• Japanese: 小笠原, 小笠原諸島, 小笠原群島

References

• Hyman Kublin, "The Discovery of the Bonin Islands: A Reexamination", Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 43, No. 1 (March 1953), pp. 27–46.
• Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat, "Description d'un Groupe d'Îles Peu Connues", Journal des Savans (July 1817), pp. 387–396.

Anagrams

• NOIBN