Will Oller .com

Amazon.com has a new product out for their Affiliate Program. It seems to intend to compte with Adwords, as it precludes the use of Adwords on the same page.

We were working on a client’s website (petconnection.com) which uses Amazon’s affiliate program to sell pet-related books. The new feature went live during development, and the name was intriguing right off the bat: “Omakase”.

“I know what that is”, I thought, even though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It sounded Japanese, maybe it’s a martial arts term. Wikipedia to the rescue!
Translated, omakase means “I leave it to your discresion”, literally “entrusting” the sushi-sama to choose the dish, preparation, and price. At some restaurants, the omakase dish will be a multi-course dinner, and is often mentioned on the menu specifically.

As far as etymology, a little bit of googling brought me to this thread on E-Budo.com, which is a good place for perspective on Japanese culture from generally non-japanese individuals with significant and strong knowledge of Japan.¹

A more precise definition came from a menu from a restaraunt in Seattle, and explains the verb conjugation. Omakase is the form of makasu, “to trust.”

Now, here’s a trick: makasu also translates to “defeat”, as in (zoku) makasu, “to see out”, or possibly, “to see through”, as in to fruition or completion.²

Obviously Amazon did not come by this word by accident. Not only would the word have some tertiary familiarity to sushi diners, but with a little investigation the name of the new product means serious business.

Like the sushi chef, Amazon’s context results need to be better than good; they need to build trust in the web designer’s mind. This kind of trust will always keep the customer coming back for more. For Amazon, the customer must be trusting enough to steer clear of Google.

I ask to any linguists out there: how common is makasu used to mean “defeat”? How likely is it that Amazon is aware of this definition?

(My guess the answers will be “not often”, and “How the hell should I know?”, respectively.)

Here is an example of the Omakase link in action:

¹ Another thread, which I have not read through, exists at chowhound.com, where some omakase-related ettiquete is discussed.

² This was “borrowed”, and probably misunderstood, from a dissertation by a Mr. Collin Freeman Baker, UC Berkely, 1999