kabuki (n.)

1896年，源自日本，指的是流行剧场（与皮影戏或抒情 Noh 剧相对）。

Kabuki comes from the verb 'kabuku', meaning 'to deviate from the normal manners and customs, to do something absurd.' Today kabuki is performed only by men, but the first kabuki performance was given in about 1603 by a girl, a shrine maiden of Kyoto named O-kuni, who 'deviated from the normal customs' by dressing as a man and entertaining the public with satirical dances in the grounds of the Kitano shrine. [Toshie M. Evans, "A Dictionary of Japanese Loanwords," 1997]

歌舞伎源自动词“kabuku”，意为“偏离正常礼仪和习俗，做出荒谬的事情”。今天，歌舞伎只由男性表演，但最初的歌舞伎表演是由一位名叫大国的京都神社巫女在1603年左右进行的，她“偏离了正常的习俗”，扮成男人并在北野神社的场地上用讽刺性的舞蹈娱乐公众。[Toshie M. Evans，“日语借词词典”，1997]

另一种词源 [Barnhart，OED] 是它的字面意思是“歌舞艺术”，由 ka “歌曲”+ bu “舞蹈”+ ki “艺术，技巧”组成。