Gosei
/ɡoʊˈseɪ/noun
A person of Japanese ancestry who is a fifth-generation resident of a country outside Japan, especially the United States.
Did you know?Gosei belongs to a Japanese-American generational vocabulary—Issei, Nisei, Sansei, Yonsei, and Gosei—whose labels preserve ancestry through a single Chinese-derived character meaning “generation” or “world.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*pénkʷe
“Five; the reconstructed ancestral numeral behind many Indo-European words for five.”
Ancient Greek
Greek
pénte
“Five; the source of English forms such as pentagon.”
Classical Latin
Latin
quīnque
“Five; ancestor of English words such as quintet and cinque.”
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
世
“An age, lifetime, generation, or the world; the character later used in Japanese generational labels.”
Modern Japanese
Japanese
五世 (gosei)
“Fifth generation; 五 means “five” and 世 means “generation” or “world.””
20th Century–Modern English
English
gosei
“A fifth-generation Japanese person, especially in diaspora communities.”