Karafuto

[ Japanese kah-rah-foo-taw ]

noun

, History/Historical.

1. a former prefecture of Japan comprising the southern half of Sakhalin during 1907–49: established from territory acquired in the treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War and restored to Russia after World War II.

Karafuto

/ ˌkɑːrɑːˈfuːtɔ /

noun

1. See Sakhalin
   transliteration of the Japanese name for Sakhalin

Word History and Origins

Origin of Karafuto¹

First recorded in 1880–85; from Japanese, from Ainu kamuy kar put ya mosir “the island that the god has created on the estuary (of the Amur River),” usually referring only to the southern part of Sakhalin