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Ki·bei

(kē-bā)

n. pl. Kibei or Ki·beis

A person born in the United States of Japanese immigrant parents and educated chiefly in Japan.

[Japanese, to return to the United States, Kibei : ki, return (from Middle Chinese kyj; also the source of Mandarin guī from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kwər; akin Tibetan ′khor) + bei, the United States (from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character meaning "rice," pronounced mǐ in Mandarin, that was used to represent the syllable -me- in early Chinese transliterations of America).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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