Sino-Xenic

or Si·no·xe·nic

[ sahy-noh-zee-nik, -zen-ik ]

adjective

, Linguistics.

1. of or relating to languages, such as Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, that are not related to Chinese but have borrowed extensively from it:

   Sino-Xenic vocabulary;

   Sino-Xenic pronunciations.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Sino-Xenic¹

Coined by U.S. linguist Samuel Martin (1924–2009) in 1953; Sino- ( def ) + xen(o)- ( def ) + -ic ( def )