yen

• IPA^(key): /jɛn/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛn

From Medhurst[1] and Hepburn’s[2] romanizations, under the influence of earlier Portuguese romanizations, of Japanese 圓 (“round; a round object”) as ye or yen, now 円 (en), from Chinese 銀圓 (yínyuán, “round silver object(s), especially a piece of eight”): 銀 (“silver”) + 圓 (“circular, round; yuan, yen, dollar”).[3] Cognate with Chinese 元 (yuán, “monetary unit, especially RMB”) and Korean 원 (won, “North or South Korean won”).

yen (plural yen)

1. The unit of Japanese currency (symbol: ¥) since 1871, divided into 100 sen.
   • 1872 February 24, “The Export of Rice”, in The Japan Weekly Mail: A Political, Commercial, and Literary Journal, volume III, number 8, Yokohama: ジャパンメール新聞社 = Japan Meru Shinbunsha, OCLC 931924335, page 95, column 1:

     Passing by those clauses of it which demand no notice, we arrive at that which provides that "each proposal (for purchase) must state the price per picul of rice in gold yen." But why in gold yen, a coin as yet so scarce as to be almost beyond the ken of the foreign merchant?

   • 1906 March 28, G[opal] K[rishna] Gokhale, “Budget Speech, 1906”, in Speeches of the Honourable Mr. G. K. Gokhale, C.I.E., Madras: Published by G[anapathi] A[graharam] Natesan & Co., Esplanade, published [1908], OCLC 19902031, pages 171–172:

     Does any one however believe that Japan's glorious achievements would have been possible, if the Government of that country had merely poured money like water on its standing battalions, unaugmented by reserves, and the magnificent spirit of every man, woman and child in that country had not been behind the Army to support it? Japan's ordinary budget for the Army is only about 37.3 millions yen, or a little under six crores of rupees.

   • 2011, Rei Kimura, chapter 7, in Japanese Orchid, [Bangkok?]: Bangkok Books, →ISBN, page 38:

     Taking the cue from his neighbours, Paul fed three 1000 yen notes into a machine beside the TV screen and the silent screen immediately exploded into a kaleidoscope of colours and instructions in Japanese below at least twenty pictures of sexy girls. […] Paul hesitated staring intently at the screen and the waiting girl while the 3,000 yen he had fed into the machine steadily dwindled at the rate of 50 yen a minute.

2. A coin or note worth one yen.
   • 2003, Richard Werner, “Preface”, in Princes of the Yen: Japan’s Central Bankers and the Transformation of the Economy, Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, →ISBN:

     When banks lend, they create money out of nothing, without withdrawing it from other parts of the economy. This way, fiscal policy would not have crowded out private-sector activity yen by yen, as actually happened.

• JPY

A painting of an opium-smoker which used to hang in Ah Sing’s opium den on Victoria Street in London, England.

Origin uncertain, but probably from Cantonese 癮 (jan⁵, “craving”) originally in reference to opium addiction, 煙癮 or 菸癮 (jin¹-jan⁵): 煙, 菸 (jin¹, “smoke, specifically opium”). Compare the later yen (“opium”) and yen-yen.[4]

yen (plural yens)

1. A strong desire, urge, or yearning.

   humankind's yen for knowledge

   • 1934, Lew Levenson, chapter XX, in Butterfly Man, New York, N.Y.: Castle Books, OCLC 917633074; republished New York, N.Y.: Castle Books, [1960?], OCLC 6191025, page 208:

     She repeated the words: "You for me and me for you," then hummed: "Two for tea and tea for two …" Her voice trailed off … "All I got is a yen for Diana and my sweet little cute little Zigzag."

   • 1999, Natalie Angier, “Of Hoggamus and Hogwash: Putting Evolutionary Psychology on the Couch”, in Woman: An Intimate Biography, New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 382:

     If a fellow chooses to tell himself that his yen for the fetching young intern in his office and his concomitant disgruntlement with his aging wife's housekeeping lacunae make perfect Darwinian sense, who am I to argue with him?

• craving
• desire
• hankering
• jones
• longing
• urge
• yearning

yen (third-person singular simple present yens, present participle yenning, simple past and past participle yenned)

1. (transitive) To have a strong desire for.
   • [1876, F[rancis] K[ildale] Robinson, A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Whitby (Series C. Original Glossaries, and Glossaries with Fresh Additions; IV), London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., 57 & 59, Ludgate Hill, OCLC 24890139, page 227:

     Yenning, groaning, longing after.]

   • 1953, Alfred Bester, “Who He?”, New York, N.Y.: Dial Press, OCLC 1509090, page 205:

     "Listen, I'm in Tom Bleutcher's suite at The Brompton House. Been here the whole Almighty morning. Olga wants you to have lunch with us." / "Olga? Who's she?" / "His daughter. You made a big hit with her last time they was in town. Come on down." / "Get the new writer." / "I got no new writer. Anyway she yens for you. Come on down."

   • 1992, Peter Jordan, “Acknowledgements”, in Re-Entry: Making the Transition from Missions to Life at Home, Seattle, Wash.: YWAM Publishing, →ISBN:

     C. S. Lewis warned, "The yen to publish is spiritually dangerous." The "yen" in this case is spread around, so perhaps the danger is diminished! This book has been "yenned" into existence by many, and is a two-team effort ….

From Chinese 煙, 菸 (yān), or Cantonese 煙, 菸 (jin¹, “smoke, specifically opium”). Compare the earlier yen (“strong desire”) and later yen-yen.[5]

yen (plural yens)

1. Opium.

• Japanese yen on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• -yne, NYE, Ney, Nye, eny, ney, nye

From Japanese 円 (en, “yen, circle”).

• IPA^(key): /jɛn/

• Audio

  (file)

yen m (plural yens)

1. yen, Japanese monetary unit and coin.

From Japanese

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /jɛn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: hyène (hyène can have aspirate or mute h, whereas yen is always "aspirate")

yen m (plural yens)

1. yen (currency)

• “yen” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Esperanto jen, from German jener.

• IPA^(key): /jen/

yen

1. look here, behold, lo

   Yen la volfo!

   Here is the wolf!, Look, the wolf!

yen

1. here is, there is

   Yen (hike) me.

   Here I am.

• yen hike
• yen ibe

yen

1. here is

   Yen (ke) la treno arivas!

   Here comes the train!

• yen ke

• yena
• yene

Borrowed from Japanese 円.

yen (plural yen)

1. yen (Japanese currency)

From the influence of earlier Portuguese romanizations, of Japanese 圓 (“round; a round object”) as ye or yen, now 円 (en), from Chinese 銀圓 (yínyuán, “round silver object(s), especially a piece of eight”): 銀 (“silver”) + 圓 (“circular, round; yuan, yen, dollar”).[1] Cognate with Chinese 元 (yuán, “monetary unit, especially RMB”) and Korean 원 (won, “North or South Korean won”).

• IPA^(key): /jɛn/, /jen/
• Hyphenation: yèn

yen (plural yen-yen, first-person possessive yenku, second-person possessive yenmu, third-person possessive yennya)

1. yen, the unit of Japanese currency (symbol: ¥) since 1871, divided into 100 sen.

• “yen” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

yen (accusative yintéw, dative yintéw)

1. you; second person singular pronoun, nominative case

• 2008, Paul Black, Pronominal Accretions in Pama-Nyungan, in Morphology and Language History →ISBN, edited by Claire Bowern, ‎Bethwyn Evans, ‎Luisa Miceli)

From Spanish lleno.

yen

1. full

From Japanese 円 (en)

• IPA^(key): /ɟ͡ʝen/, [ɟ͡ʝẽn]

yen m (plural yenes)

1. yen

yen

1. second-person singular imperative of yenmek

From Japanese 円 (en)

• IPA^(key): [jen]

yen (plural yens)

1. yen