Samurai were the military the aristocracy of middle ages and also early-modern Japan.

In Japanese, they are normally referred to as bushi or buke. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was initially a verb implying to wait upon or accompany individuals in the upper ranks of society, as well as this is additionally true of the initial term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to indicate "those which offer in close attendance to the nobility", the pronunciation in Japanese transforming to saburai. Baseding on Wilson, an early referral to the word "samurai" shows up in the Kokin Wakashū (905-- 914), the very first imperial compilation of poems, finished in the very first part of the 10th century.