ノルマ

1949 is the key printed date for ノルマ in Shogakukan's Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, which cites Umezaki Haruo's Akai Obi no Hanashi. The source form is Russian норма, romanized norma. Russian dictionaries give rule, standard amount, work rate, and normal measure, and the older European line goes back to Latin norma. The Japanese borrowing is tied to labor after World War II, especially the return of Siberian internees in the late 1940s. Digital Daijisen says those returnees passed the word into Japanese. In Soviet work language, норма выработки refers to an output norm; in Japanese companies the word settled near 仕事量, 目標, and later business words such as ターゲット. Today ノルマ is common in sales teams, schools, factories, clubs, and personal plans. It usually sounds like an obligation that must be met, as in 営業ノルマ or 販売ノルマ. Compounds such as ノルマ制 and 日割りノルマ also appear, while クォータ is rarer in ordinary office talk. English norm is a usual pattern or social rule, not a required quota. Example: 今月のノルマ is a target for this month, not the normal state of this month.