Editing Ninja (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Ninja-kanji.svg|thumb|The word "ninja" in [[kanji]] script]]
''Ninja'' is the ''[[Kanji#On'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading)|on'yomi]]'' ([[Sino-Japanese vocabulary|Early Middle Chinese–influenced]]) reading of the two [[kanji]] "忍者". In the native ''[[Kanji#Kun'yomi (native reading)|kun'yomi]]'' reading, it is pronounced ''shinobi'', a shortened form of ''shinobi-no-mono'' (忍びの者).<ref name="Origin of word Ninja">[http://pakninjas.com/is-it-ninja-or-shinobi-no-mono/ Origin of word Ninja] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110502042122/http://pakninjas.com/is-it-ninja-or-shinobi-no-mono/ |date=2011-05-02 }}.</ref>

The word ''shinobi'' appears in the written record as far back as the late 8th century in poems in the ''[[Man'yōshū]]''.<ref name="takagi">{{Harvnb|Takagi|Gomi|Ōno|1962|p=191}}; the full poem is "''Yorozu yo ni / Kokoro ha tokete / Waga seko ga / Tsumishi te mitsutsu / Shinobi kanetsumo''".</ref><ref name="satake">{{Harvnb|Satake|Yasumada|Kudō|Ōtani|2003|p=108}}; the ''[[Man'yōgana]]'' used for "''shinobi''{{-"}} is 志乃備, its meaning and characters are unrelated to the later mercenary ''shinobi''.</ref> The underlying connotation of ''shinobi'' ([[:wikt:忍|忍]]) means "to steal away; to hide" and—by extension—"to forbear", hence its association with stealth and invisibility. ''Mono'' ([[:wikt:者|者]]) means "a person".

Historically, the word ''ninja'' was not in common use, and a variety of regional [[colloquialism]]s evolved to describe what would later be dubbed ninja. Along with ''shinobi'', these include ''monomi'' ("one who sees"), ''nokizaru'' ("[[Japanese macaque|macaque]] on the roof"), ''rappa'' ("ruffian"), ''kusa'' ("grass") and ''Iga-mono'' ("one from Iga").<ref name="Green 2001 355" /> In historical documents, ''shinobi'' is almost always used.

''[[Kunoichi]]'' (くノ一) is, originally, an [[Cant (language)#Argot|argot]] which means "woman";<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=忍者の誕生|last=吉丸雄哉(associate professor of [[Mie University]])|date=April 2017|publisher=勉誠出版|isbn=978-4-585-22151-7|editor-last=吉丸雄哉、山田雄司 編|chapter=くのいちとは何か}}</ref>{{Rp|p168}} it supposedly comes from the characters くノ一 (respectively hiragana ''ku'', katakana ''no'' and kanji ''ichi''), which make up the three strokes that form the kanji for "woman" (女).<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|p168}} In fiction written in the modern era ''kunoichi'' means "female ninja".<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|p167}}

In English, the plural of ''ninja'' can be either unchanged as ''ninja'', reflecting the Japanese language's lack of [[grammatical number]], or the regular English plural ''ninjas''.<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 2nd ed.; ''[[American Heritage Dictionary]]'', 4th ed.; Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1).</ref>