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Show Japanese "Maru." The word "maru" attached to the name of every merchant ship and commonly accepted as meaning "ship" in reality has no known meaning. According Ac-cording to a Japanese authority the word Is the survival of a custom centuries cen-turies old. There are two opinions as to how the custom started. The story, the more likely to be the true one, Is that in ancient times the Japanese attached "maru" to the name of anything any-thing precious or highly prized, as a sword or a baby. It was first applied to a ship's name about 2,000 years ago, when the Empress Jingo sent an expedition to Korea. She added the word to the name of the ship that transported the troops to Korea. Ever since then "maru" has been associated with the name of a steamship or sailing sail-ing vessel. It Is never used with the name of a warship. |