来源: merriam-webster 线上词汇网站
Ninja
The term and concept of the ninja was introduced into English by British spy
novelist Ian Fleming in the 1964 James Bond novel You Only Live Twice. It was
popularized by such works as Eric Van Lustbader's 1980 novel The Ninja and
the 1981 film Enter the Ninja. The term has proliferated to the point that a
2013 Google search for the word yielded 427 million hits.
大意: 英国小说家Ian Fleming 1964年在其007系列小说(惊! 就是大家熟知的007)
最早用了Ninja这个词, 而大量流行起来则是1980 Eric Lustbader 的小说The Ninja
及隔年的同名电影之后的事
传统日本好像都是叫Shinobi 忍び
Ninja 忍者 这个词 可能混合了至少日中英三种文化的产物吧
我的认知是 如果你穿越到日本古代想要雇用杀手 你要讲 Shinobi 仲介才听得懂
Ninja 则是影视阅读娱乐产业创的词