A Japanese word meaning 'circle' or 'round,' used in Japanese ship names and sometimes adopted in English contexts.
From Japanese 'maru' (丸) meaning literally 'circle.' Japanese tradition adds this word to ship names as a suffix to indicate they are vessels. It entered English vocabulary through maritime and Japanese cultural contexts.
Japanese ships ending in '-maru' were so common that Western sailors learned to recognize them instantly—it's one of the few non-English words that became part of maritime terminology. The most famous is probably the Yamato Maru, and it shows how languages blend when cultures meet on the ocean.
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