Link Centre Dictionary

ninja

UK/ˈnɪnd͡ʒə/ US/ˈnɪndʒʌ/ fairly common informal slang

noun

1.

a member of the ninja who were trained in martial arts and hired for espionage or sabotage or assassinations; a person skilled in ninjutsu

2.

a class of 14th century Japanese who were trained in martial arts and were hired for espionage and assassinations

Origin

Borrowed from Japanese 忍者 (ninja), of uncertain derivation but with an underlying sense of secret or hidden person. Popularized in Japanese by manga after World War II and in English by the 1980 novel The Ninja by Eric Van Lustbader and the 1981 movie Enter the Ninja Noun sense 3.1 (“Mongolian miner”) arose from the supposed resemblance of the bowls used to wash ore with mercury to the shells of the main characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Juggalo slang sense arose via influence from AAVE nigga.

Phrases

  • Fruit Ninja champion
  • ginger ninja
  • mall ninja
  • ninja cop
  • ninja foot
  • ninja gym
  • ninja loot
  • ninja looter

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.