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kung fu

Gōngfu means 'effort, time spent, acquired skill' — you can have kung fu in cooking or calligraphy; Japanese kept that older sense as kufū, 'contrivance'. English narrowed it to Chinese martial arts in the 1960s, Bruce Lee's Hong Kong films sent the new sense round the world, and Chinese itself has used it that way only since the late 20th century.

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500 CEMiddle Chinese

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

kung fu

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