サラリーマン

1924-25 is the first citation point in Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten for サラリーマン: Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's Chijin no Ai uses サラリー・マン. The form combines English salary and man inside Japanese; etymology notes also compare English salaried man. The element man gave the Japanese word a male default. English salary itself goes back through Anglo-French and Latin salarium, connected with pay. In Taisho and early Showa Japan, サラリーマン named a person paid a regular salary by a company or organization, close to 月給取り and 給与生活者. Taisho urban offices, banks, railway companies, newspapers, and ministries produced the social type. After 1945 and during the high-growth decades, it became tied to the male white-collar company employee. Related social words include OL, 脱サラ, 会社員, ビジネスマン, and サラリーマン川柳. Modern Japanese can still use サラリーマン for an office worker, often male, though 会社員 or 会社勤め is more neutral. English salaryman exists, but Merriam-Webster records English use from 1962 and defines it as a Japanese white-collar businessman, not as the normal English word for any salaried employee. Cambridge says it is, in Japan, a man working in an office for a salary. In English, office worker or employee is safer. Example: 父はサラリーマンです.