Sensei - online puzzles

Sensei, Sinsang, (Sonsaeng/Seonsaeng equivalent in Korean ) or (Xiansheng (先生)) is an honorific term shared in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese honorifics that is translated as " person born before another" or "one who comes before". In general usage, it is used, with proper form, after a person 's name and means " teacher "; the word is also used as a title to refer to or address other professionals or persons of authority, such as clergy, accountants, lawyers, physicians and politicians or to show respect to someone who has achieved a certain level of mastery in an art form or some other skill, e.g., accomplished novelists, musicians, artists and martial artists.

Etymology

The two characters that make up the term can be directly translated as "born before" and imply one who teaches based on wisdom from age and experience.The word prefaced by the adjective 大, pronounced "dai" ( or "ō"), which means " great " or "large", is often translated "grand master". This compound term, "dai-sensei", is sometimes used to refer to the top sensei in a particular school or tradition, particularly within the iemoto system. For a more senior member of a group who has not achieved the level of sensei, the term senpai (先輩) is used – note the common use of 先 "before"; in martial arts, this is particularly used for the most senior non-sensei member.

The Japanese expression of 'sensei' shares the same characters as the Chinese word 先生, pronounced xiānshēng in Standard Chinese. Xiansheng was a courtesy title for a man of respected stature. Middle Chinese pronunciation of this term may have been *senʃaŋ or *sienʃaŋ. In modern Standard Chinese, it is used in the same way as the title "Mr". Prior to the development of the modern vernacular, xiānshēng was used to address teachers of both genders; this has fallen out of usage in Standard Chinese, though it is retained in some southern Chinese Chinese varieties such as Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka, where it still has the meaning " teacher " or " doctor ".