Etymology Fun

[ilai]

I chanced to look up the word "rickshaw" in Dictionary.com and was surprised to find that the American Heritage Dictionary now includes Middle Chinese in some of their etymologies. Below is their etymology for "jinrikisha" for instance:

[Japanese jinrikisha : jin, person (from Middle Chinese n^yin, rin) + riki, strength (from Middle Chinese lik) + sha, vehicle (from Middle Chinese chia).]

If I recall correctly, they used to just break up the words into Sino-Japanese morphemes, so this is definitely a step forward.