パイプ

1886, Shogakukan Nihon Kokugo Daijiten cites 工学字彙 for パイプ as a tube for liquids, gases, or wires, from English pipe. Merriam-Webster traces English pipe to Old English pīpa and Vulgar Latin *pipa, with older meanings around a tube or wind instrument. Japanese also records 1886 usage for a smoking mouthpiece in Tsubouchi Shoyo's 内地雑居未来之夢 and 1897 usage for a whistle in Kunikida Doppo's おとづれ. The borrowing enters Meiji engineering, rail, waterworks, mining, and daily-object vocabulary. Because English pipe already covers tubes, smoking devices, organ pipes, and simple instruments, Japanese can accept several senses at once. パイプ appears beside チューブ, ホース, ダクト, パイプオルガン, and パイプたばこ, while technical fields often specify 水道管, ガス管, or 配管 when native or Sino-Japanese precision is needed. Modern Japanese パイプ means a physical tube, a smoking pipe, and also a person or system that helps communication between two sides. Shogakukan gives a 1970 Sakaue Hiroshi example for this communication sense. English has pipe as a data or signal channel too, but Japanese パイプ役 is especially common for an intermediary role. A short example is 政界にパイプがある, to have contacts in politics.