ヤクザ

八九三, read ya-ku-sa or ya-ku-za in gambling speech, is the best-known source proposed for ヤクザ. Kotobank's Digital Daijisen explains the origin as a three-card gambling hand: 8, 9, and 3 total 20, which counts as the worst zero hand in 三枚ガルタ or カブ-type games. Nihon Kokugo Daijiten gives a 1736 example from the joruri 和田合戦女舞鶴. In Edo-period gambling language, in cities such as Edo and Osaka, the number set came to mean useless or worthless, because the hand had no effective value. By 1754, Nihon Kokugo Daijiten records 八九三 in the dangibon 八景聞取法問 for people outside ordinary work. The word then moved from a judgment about no value to labels for gamblers, drifters, and people living outside accepted occupations; related terms include 博徒, 無頼者, ならず者, and 暴力団. Modern Japanese uses ヤクザ for organized-crime members and also as an adjective in older phrases such as やくざな仕事, meaning disreputable or useless work. English yakuza usually refers only to Japanese organized crime, so it loses the older everyday adjective sense. Example: ヤクザ映画 means a film about gangsters, not a film about the 8-9-3 hand itself.