もう一つ日本語っぽい言葉。Gizmodoの記事にこんなのが、
Unless you're some sort for Ginsu master, capable of slicing, dicing, and jullienning an entire meal together with a single blade, food prep is a whole lot easier when you use the right knife. Here are the five most essential, versatile cutting implements in a cook's arsenal.
Five Knives Every Home Chef Should Own
「ホーム・シェフに必要な５種類の包丁」という内容なのだけど、その冒頭で出てきたこの"Ginsu"、気になって調べた。Wikipediaによれば、
The Ginsu knife is a product best known for the sales techniques used to promote it.
Ginsu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The "amazing" Ginsu knife became known to millions of television viewers in the USA through ubiquitous television advertisements in the 1970s. Ads asked "How much would you pay? Don't answer!", urged viewers to "Call now! Operators are standing by!" and included the signature line "But wait! There's more!".[1] The ads fueled sales of between two and three million Ginsu sets between 1978 and 1984.
The Ginsu ads adapted the "hard sell" direct-marketing techniques of door-to-door sales and print advertising to the medium of television. In the process, they established the formula for the modern infomercial. Robert Thompson (media scholar), of Syracuse University, called the Ginsu advertising campaign "the pitch of all pitches."
要するにインフォマーシャルの元祖となった商品らしい。"But wait! There's more!"というのがここから始まったというのが面白い。そのオリジナルがこれ：
映像は古いけれど、未だにこのフォーマットが踏襲されているというのが凄い。で、本題の"Ginsu"については、
The knives were originally called Quickut knives, made by a company in Fremont, Ohio, but since that lacked panache, Valenti and Becher, and copywriter Arthur Schiff, devised a name and pitch that hinted at Japanese Samurai images (the name Ginsu doesn't mean anything in any language, though Becher would say that Ginsu means "I never have to work again").
日本の侍を意識した造語、だそう。
