シャツ

English shirt is the source word behind Japanese シャツ. English dictionaries trace shirt back to Old English scyrte, a related Germanic clothing word, but Japanese borrowed the modern English item name. Western dress entered public life after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when uniforms, schools, the army, and offices adopted many foreign clothing terms in newspapers and catalogs. In Japanese, シャツ expanded through compounds rather than staying as one garment name. ワイシャツ comes from white shirt, Tシャツ from T-shirt, and ポロシャツ from polo shirt. These forms grew in Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa clothing vocabulary as department stores, school uniforms, and office work separated underwear, dress shirts, sportswear, and casual tops for daily use. Present Japanese uses シャツ for several upper-body garments, so context matters. ワイシャツ usually means a dress shirt, while Tシャツ is a knit T-shirt and 肌着 can be an undershirt. English shirt is singular and shirts is plural, but Japanese シャツ does not mark plural and is counted with 枚. One difference is clear: Y-shirt is not normal English for a white dress shirt in the United States or Britain.