ブリキ

1811-39 is the dictionary range attached to ブリキ: Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten lists Kosei Shinpen and gives Dutch blik as the source. Dutch blik names metal packaging material, a can, and tin-coated sheet metal; older Dutch dictionaries also define it as vertind dun plaatijzer, tin-coated thin iron plate. Cambridge translates Dutch blik as can, tin, or dustpan by context. The word entered Japanese through Dutch contact in the late Edo and Meiji technical vocabulary, when metal sheets, cans, and imported goods needed new names. Japanese first wrote it with forms such as 鉄葉 and ブリッキ, then settled on ブリキ. By Ozaki Koyo's 1896 Tajou Takon, the word appears in printed literature with ブリキの喇叭, a tinplate trumpet. The spellings 錻 and 錻力 also exist. Meiji and Taisho toy makers used stamped tinplate for trains, horns, and cars. Modern ブリキ usually means tinplate, a thin steel sheet plated with tin, and it appears in ブリキ缶, ブリキ板, and ブリキのおもちゃ. Daijisen says 錻 is a Japanese-made character. English tin can be the metal tin, a container, or British English for a can, so tinplate is the technical match. Japanese sometimes contrasts ブリキ with トタン, zinc-coated sheet metal, although older usage could blur them. Example: ブリキのおもちゃ.