Aikidoka (合気道家'' aikidōka'') is a Japanese term for a master-level practitioner of the martial art

Aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a modern Japanese martial art that is split into many different styles, including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practiced in around 1 ...

. The term is rarely heard among native speakers of Japanese, in spite of its common use as a

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

in other countries.

Etymology

In the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...

, the suffix , when added to the name of certain activities, indicates either a person or a profession. In the martial arts, it is used to indicate one who has seriously dedicated their life to their chosen art, or made it a profession; thus ''karate-ka'', ''judo-ka'', ''aikido-ka'' and so on, and therefore is inappropriate to use in reference to the vast majority of practitioners.

References

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Etymology

See also

References