Although yen suggests no more than a strong desire these days (as in "a yen for a beach vacation"), at one time someone with a yen was in deep trouble: the first meaning of yen was an intense craving for opium. The word comes from Cantoneseyīn-yáhn, a combination of yīn, meaning "opium," and yáhn, "craving." In English, the Chinese syllables were translated as yen-yen.
The Tokyo District Court suit demands 1.4 million yen ($9,400) in damages for 63 medical professionals, for reviews posted on Google Maps.—Yuri Kageyama, Quartz, 22 Apr. 2024 The entrance fee at both is 400 yen (about $2.65) for adults and 300 yen (about $2) for children.—Paula Deitz, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Apr. 2024 The Japanese sent specialists to the capital, Kathmandu, to help Nepali farmers get serious about making the stuff of cold, hard yen.—Alex Travelli Uma Bista, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2024 Police suspect that Yamakawa’s total profit amounted to millions of yen (equivalent to anywhere between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars), and an investigation is underway.—Amrita Khalid, The Verge, 12 Apr. 2024 Adult tickets cost between 500 and 1,500 yen ($3 to $10) each, depending on the day, and adults are allowed to bring two kids per person for free.—Talia Avakian, Travel + Leisure, 2 Mar. 2024 The winning strategy in the past two years has been to overweight Japanese equities relative to international benchmarks, while also hedging yen exposure back into dollars.—Nick Sargen, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024 Needless to say, that yen for solemnity is not exclusive to Delon.—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2024 That’s on top of some 330 billion yen ($2.17 billion) in subsidies already pledged by the government.—Junko Ogura, CNN, 10 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'yen.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
Japanese en
Noun (2)
obsolete English argot yen-yen craving for opium, from Chin (Guangdong) yīn-yáhn, from yīn opium + yáhn craving
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