9. THE SAMURAI. Definition and Sty niology.— Samurai, now domiciled in the dic tionaries of European languages, is a strictly Japanese term, being derived from a verb — samurau, to attend, to wait upon, to serve. Samurai, therefore, meant originally a person who attended upon another—naturally upon his superior. But the use of the term was con fined to honorable and personal service, and as in the course of time, under the regime of feudalism, class distinctions and different grades of honor were instituted and certain kinds of service, notably the military, became more ex clusive, the term samurai was applied only to those belonging to the military class of the feudal clans. In a wide sense it included the whole of the military nobility, the warrior class; though in a more usual and restricted sense, it meant the inferior nobility exclusive of the daimyo, much like the English knights bachelors, whom Blackstone defines as tithe most ancient though the lowest order of knight The idea of what the samurai was can, per haps, be better conveyed by comparing him with his compeer in Europe than by a mere etymological explanation. Almost every nation has had at one time or another — especially under the regime of feudalism, but even prior to it—something like the usage of knighting, whether it was done by means of a formal rite or not. Cmsar speaks of the institution of soldurii in Aquitaine; Tacitus mentions that of comilati among German tribes; the Romans had equites aurati; mediaeval Germany had Ritter schaft; France her chevaliers; in fact con tinental Europe boasted of the existence of Milites medis. It can scarcely escape the most cursory glance that several of these terms bear an etymological relation to the horse, obviously because the knights served on horseback, whereas the common soldiers marched on foot. It is interesting to note, however, that the English word knight has no reference to a horse — its original meaning being the Saxon cniht, signifying puer, serous or attendant, this possessing a significance strangely parallel with samurai. Samurai is, or was, explained as
being strictly of Japanese origin; but as is the case with every word in the Japanese vocabu lary, there is either its equivalent in pure Chinese or a sinified expression for it. In fact, both in literature and formal speech, it was considered more dignified to adopt the sinico form; so that the term Shi (the nearest Chinese equivalent for gentry), or Buski (fight ing nobility), or Buke (warrior family) came to be used almost as commonly as the pure Japanese original. In contrast to the sinico Sushi may be mentioned its archaic equivalent in purest Japanese. The word mono-nofu or mono-nobe, literally "article bearer," i.e., the wearer of arms — more especially the sword, which was the distinguishing article worn by the order. Some derive it from a word mean ing thing-doer, one who acts or does anything, the most important thing of course being fight ing. Still another archaic term is masu-rao, strong man, and though this was used in con trast to weak woman, and therefore meant simply masculine personality, it was often ap plied in the sense of samurai. Both mass-two and mono-nofu are now used almost only in prosody.
Hietory.—As has already been hinted at, the germ of the institution of a separate class comprising the fighting force can be found in the term samurai. But it took cetituries of gradual development for it to assume a narrow, exclusive meaning. Formerly there was no separate class of warriors. Whoever was pos sessed of two brawny arms and two stalwart legs joined an army in times of need, and whoever added to strong limbs the possession of a powerful will and stout heart became a leader. Even after the leadership, gained by personal superiority, became hereditary, the fighting force was not separated from the mass of the population.
The constant warfare of the Middle Ages necessitated division of labor — consequently of social classes, and by the end of the 8th century we notice that the samurai formed a pretty clearly defined order.