Date:    Sun, 22 Feb 1998 16:46:57 +0900
<br>From:    Daniel Long  dlong[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]JOHO.OSAKA-SHOIN.AC.JP 
<br>Subject: hurache
<br>
<br>I have been told that the English word hurache, which came into US
<br>English through Mexican Spanish, originates in the Japanese word
<br>*waraji* 'straw sandals', but I have no substantiating evidence.  OED
<br>indicate the word was in use in Mexican Spanish in 1887, and this is not
<br>long after the first Japanese immigrants went to Mexico.  That doesn't
<br>leave much time for a borrowing to catch on and spread, but it may not
<br>be impossible.  I do not have easy access to a Mexican Spanish
<br>etymological dictionary.  Does anyone have any ideas on the origin of
<br>this word.
<br>
<br>The OED's listing for hurache begins thus:
<br>
<br>huarache. Also guaracha, guarache, guarachi, huaracho.  [Mex.-Sp.]
<br>A leather-thonged sandal, orig. worn by Mexican Indians.
<br>1887 F. C. Gooch Face to Face with Mexicans xii. 433 Leathern aprons and
<br>sandals of the same, called guarachi.
<br>1892 Dialect Notes I. 190 Huaracho, -s, a kind of sandals worn by
<br>Indians and the lower classes generally. Used generally in the plural
<br>only.
<br>
<br>--
<br>Daniel Long, Associate Professor     tel  +81-6-723-8297
<br>Japanese Language Research Center    fax  +81-6-723-8302
<br>Osaka Shoin Women's College         dlong[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]joho.osaka-shoin.ac.jp
<br>4-2-26 Hishiyanishi                 http://www.age.ne.jp/x/oswcjlrc/
<br>Higashi-Osaka-shi, Osaka Japan 577-8550
<br>