Editing Shogun (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Kanji shogun.png|thumb|80px|[[Kanji]] that make up the word shogun]]
The term {{nihongo|''shōgun''|{{linktext|将軍}}|extra={{literal|army commander}}}} is the abbreviation of the historical title ''sei-i taishōgun'' ({{linktext|征夷大将軍}}): 
* 征 (''sei'', せい) means "conquer" or "subjugate", and 
* 夷 (''i'', い) means "barbarian" or "savage"; 
* 大 (''dai'', だい) means "great"; 
* {{lang|ja|将}} (''shō'', しょう) means "commander",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/kanjidic.nsf/542e273e7326836c49256b0400118691/5806e0490bfe5e2d49256a90002ec196!OpenDocument|title=Yamasa Online Kanji Dictionary|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415201458/http://www.yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/kanjidic.nsf/542e273e7326836c49256b0400118691/5806e0490bfe5e2d49256a90002ec196!OpenDocument|archive-date=15 April 2009 |access-date=20 January 2009}}</ref> and 
* 軍 (''gun'', ぐん) means "army".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/kanjidic.nsf/542e273e7326836c49256b0400118691/b38b19bee7c7817749256a90002ebfc7!OpenDocument|title=Yamasa Online Kanji Dictionary|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201174455/http://yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/kanjidic.nsf/542e273e7326836c49256b0400118691/b38b19bee7c7817749256a90002ebfc7!OpenDocument|archive-date=1 February 2009|access-date=20 January 2009}}</ref> 
Thus, a literal translation of ''sei-i taishōgun'' would be 'Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians'.<ref name="modern-reader" />

The term originally referred to the general who commanded the army sent to fight the tribes of northern Japan, but after the twelfth century, the term was used to designate the leader of the ''[[samurai]]''.<ref>Turnbull, 2006a:21 & 22.</ref> The term is often translated ''[[generalissimo]]'' and is also used for such military leaders of foreign nations by the Japanese.

Though {{nihongo|''shōgun''|{{linktext|将軍}}}} now predominantly refers to the historical position ''sei-i taishōgun'' ({{linktext|征夷大将軍}}) in Japanese, the term is generically used for the rank of [[general (military rank)|general]] in other East Asian languages, such as Chinese ({{lang-zh|t=[[wikt:將軍|將軍]]|s=[[wikt:将军|将军]]|p=jiāngjūn|j=zoeng1 gwan1}}), in which it is secondarily used for the historical Japanese position.

The [[macron (diacritic)|macron]] in the [[rōmaji|romanization]] "shōgun" depicts the [[Japanese language#Phonology#Vowels|Japanese long "o" vowel]] sound in ''し<b>ょう</b>ぐん'', though because of the common tendency to drop [[diacritics]] in [[English orthography|written English]], "shogun" has become a common spelling of the English word.

In the western world, he was referred to as ''[[Taikun|Tycoon]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Satow |first=Ernest |title=A Diplomat in Japan |location=Berkeley, Calif. |publisher=Stone Bridge Press |year=2006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Alcock |first=Rutherford |title=The capital of the tycoon: a narrative of a three years' residence in Japan |publisher=New York: Bradley Co. |year=1863}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kinnear Ballagh |first=Margaret Tate |title=Glimpses Of Old Japan, 1861-1866 |year=1908}}</ref> It was not until later that the proper term of ''Sei-i-tai'' or ''sei-i taishōgun'' was used.