nisei

See also: Nisei

English

Etymology

From Japanese 二世 (にせい, ​nisei), from 二 (ni-, “second”) + 世 (sei, “generation”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈniseɪ/

Noun

nisei (plural niseis or nisei)

1. One whose parents were Japanese immigrants, especially to North or South America.

   Coordinate terms: issei, sansei, yonsei

   • 1973 October 4, Robert Trumbull, “Offspring of Japanese Settlers in U.S. Find Japan Frustrating”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Born and brought tip mostly in South America, the United States (particularly Hawaii) and Canada, the nisei and sansei have Japanese features but often speak the language imperfectly, if at all.

   • 1978, Gordon Hirabayashi, “Japanese Heritage, Canadian Experience”, in Harold Coward, Leslie S. Kawamura, editors, Religion and Ethnicity, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, page 66:

     The Nisei, on the other hand, are more inclined to view the hyphenated Japanese Canadian identity with positive implications.

   • 1999, Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon:

     Decrypts fly out of a line printer on the other end and are taken off to another hut where American nisei, and some white men trained in Nipponese, translate them.

Japanese

Romanization

nisei

1. Rōmaji transcription of にせい