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Borrowed from Japanese寿司(sushi, “sushi (sour rice)”), ultimately from archaic conjugation 酸し(sushi, “sour, vinegared”) of modern adjective 酸い(sui, “sour, vinegared”).
A Japanese dish made of small portions of sticky white rice flavored with vinegar, usually wrapped in seaweed and filled or topped with fish, vegetables or meat.
Not long ago a newspaper reporter came to interview me on the subject of unusual foods, and I described to him the persimmon-leaf sushi made by the people who live deep in the mountains of Yoshino—and which I shall take the opportunity to introduce to you here.
I lived in New York all my life. We used to have Chinese restaurants, ltalian restaurants. Now you have these sushi restaurants. Everyone goes for sushi. Sushi—I hate the stuff. Although, I tell you, I had some the other day. I took it home, I cooked it, it wasn't bad. It tasted like fish.
To appreciate sushi, you have to forget the tastes and textures that come with Western cuisine. At first glance (or should I say taste?), a sushi of flounder will not be that different from a sushi of sea bream. But, for the Japanese, these two sushi are as different as roast beef and roast pork are for a Westerner.
(countable,rare) One of the portions from this dish.
1983 May 31, Robert Nadeau, “Restaurant: Gyuhama of Japan: Suit yourself with sushi”, in Richard M. Gaines, editor, The Boston Phoenix, volume XII, number 22, Boston, Mass.: Boston Phoenix Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, section 2, page 10, column 3:
You will recall that, contrary to the relative appearance of the words, the sashimi are the simple raw fish slices and the sushi are the rolls of rice and raw fish.
Rusty put a sushi in her palm. / Mary Kate popped it into her mouth. It tasted salty and crunchy. “Cucumber!” she said. / “My grandmother puts a surprise in the middle of each one,” said Rusty.
1997, Jeffrey A. Kottler, “Focusing on People”, in Travel That Can Change Your Life: How to Create a Transformative Experience (Jossey-Bass Psychology Series), San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass Publishers, →ISBN, page 92:
I reach out and pop a sushi into my mouth while I’m waiting for someone to answer a question.
2009 September 14, Frank Penater, “Undercover”, in The Gene Card, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 161:
Startled by the venom, Erik almost dropped a sushi into his mixture of soy sauce and wasabi.
(proscribed) Raw fish, especially as a Japanese dish.
2012, Alison Acheson, Molly's Cue, page 26:
'Can't eat sushi?' I said. Then Mom said, 'You can't eat uncooked fish when you're pregnant' as if I'm the one stupid enough to go and get pregnant!
Usage notes
Some non-Japanese people assume the defining component of sushi is raw fish, and occasionally use "sushi" to mean "raw fish". Raw slices of fish (or other meats) served without rice are properly termed sashimi.[1]
The collective plural of sushi is generally sushi. When referring to two or more types of sushi or to multiple instances of sushi the plural is usually sushis.
“sushi”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03
sushi(Japanese dish made of small portions of sticky white rice flavored with vinegar, usually wrapped in seaweed and filled or topped with fish, vegetables, or meat)
Further reading
sushi in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.