Mottainai

[4] The second sense is seen in Japanese newspapers when they refer to members of the imperial family as having been present at such-and-such an event, not necessarily implying wastefulness but rather gratitude or awe.

[4] Citing the Kyoto University Japanese literature scholar Kōshin Noma [ja], Hasegawa states that the word originated as slang in the Kamakura period,[4] and that by the mid 15th century had perhaps already acquired the meanings of (2) and (3).

[5] A form of the word, motaina (モタイナ) appears in the late-14th or early-15th century Noh play Aritōshi [ja], apparently in a sense close to (1).

[9] Daigenkai gives buttai as an alternate reading of the word,[8] and it appears written with the kanji 勿躰, 物體, 勿體, 物体, or 勿体.

[10] The 18th-century Kokugaku philologist Motoori Norinaga, in the preface to his 1798 treatise Tamaarare ('Ice Crystals (like) Jewels'; 玉あられ) designed to stir people up from their sleepy acquiescence in acquired customs that were not authentically native, and was critical of the use of the word to express gratitude.

[11] In his 1934 essay Nihon-seishin to Bukkyō, the Buddhologist Katō Totsudō (加藤咄堂; 1870-1949) included the "aversion to wastefulness" (mottainai) in a putative series of what he considered to be "core Japanese personality traits".

[14] In that context, Hitoshi Chiba, the author, described mottainai as follows:[14]We often hear in Japan the expression 'mottainai', which loosely means 'wasteful' but in its full sense conveys a feeling of awe and appreciation for the gifts of nature or the sincere conduct of other people.