きせい【煙管】 : kisei | define meaning

Cognate with Kagoshima きせい kisei and きしい kishii; Okinawan ちしり chishiri and しりー shirii; and standard Japanese きせる・キセル【煙管】 kiseru "smoking pipe". Ultimately borrowed from Khmer ខ្សៀរ khsiěrô (as in កន្ទុយខ្សៀរ kântŭy khsiěrô "mouthpiece of a pipe") or ខ្សៀ khsiě "smoking pipe".

Historical Ryukyuan attestations

• A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, 1795-1798 (1804), by William Robert Broughton, records "Shiree, A tobacco pipe".
• Vocabulary of the language spoken at the Great Loo-Choo island in the Japan Sea (1818), by Herbert John Clifford, records "Tobacco pipe. Shirree".
• Voyage of His Majesty's Ship Alceste: Along the Coast of Corea, to the Island of Lewchew, with an Account of Her Subsequent Shipwreck (1818), by John M'Leod, records "Tobacco-pipe. Tsidee".
• 沖縄語典 Okinawa goten (Okinawan language dictionary) (1896), by Masayo Nakamoto, records "「ちしり」煙管（キセル）させるハすぺいん語".

Discussion

• The origin of this word is debated. Some sources suggest the term was instead borrowed from the Portuguese phrase "que sorver" or Spanish "que sorber" meaning "that which is sucked". Other sources suggest that the word was coined in Japanese and loaned into Khmer.