See paper driver in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
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{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ja",
"3": "ペーパードライバー",
"tr": "pēpā doraibā"
},
"expansion": "Borrowed from Japanese ペーパードライバー (pēpā doraibā)",
"name": "bor+"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "en",
"3": "paper"
},
"expansion": "English paper",
"name": "der"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Borrowed from Japanese ペーパードライバー (pēpā doraibā), from English paper + driver.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "paper drivers",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "paper driver (plural paper drivers)",
"name": "en-noun"
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
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"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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"name": "Automotive",
"orig": "en:Automotive",
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"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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300,
313
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],
"ref": "1997 September 17, Mitch Sako, “NY TIMES: Japan's Economy Shrinks by 11.2% Annual Rate”, in soc.culture.japan.moderated (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-23:",
"text": "But the average Japanese does not own a car (as an individual). I don't have the figures but someone told me that less than half of those of driving age do not own a car, moreso,^([sic]) of those who do have a license, a relatively small percentage of those with licenses own their own car, many are paper drivers.",
"type": "quote"
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],
"ref": "2002 February 17, Eric Takabayashi, “I'm going to New Jersey via Wisconsin to pick up some Snickers and Mars”, in fj.life.in-japan (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-23:",
"text": "There are people who surely should not drive. \"Paper drivers\" and at risk drivers should be recertified.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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28,
41
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],
"ref": "2005 March 23, harv, “Interesting road rule in Japan.”, in aus.cars (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-23:",
"text": "There are courses aimed at \"Paper Drivers\" people who get their license but never use it, I know people that have had their license for over 7 Years and never driven except for the tests",
"type": "quote"
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{
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49,
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"ref": "2009, Kumiko Murata, Jennifer Jenkins, Global Englishes in Asian Contexts: Current and Future Debates, page 22:",
"text": "If a person in Japan identifies her/himself as a paper driver, no non-Japanese is likely to find the intelligibility of the term difficult at all, but probably most non-Japanese will have no idea of the comprehensibility or the interpretability of the term. Almost all non-Japanese need to be taught that a paper driver is one who holds a legal driver's license but does not consider her/himself competent as a driver and usually uses the license only as a means of identification when legally necessary.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person who has a driver's license but never drives."
],
"id": "en-paper_driver-en-noun-a59pq0wA",
"links": [
[
"non-native speaker",
"non-native speaker"
],
[
"driver's license",
"driver's license"
]
],
"qualifier": "usually non-native speakers' English",
"raw_glosses": [
"(rare, usually non-native speakers' English) A person who has a driver's license but never drives."
],
"tags": [
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"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "person who has a driver's license but never drives",
"word": "本本族"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "pēpā doraibā",
"sense": "person who has a driver's license but never drives",
"word": "ペーパードライバー"
}
]
}
],
"word": "paper driver"
}
{
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{
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"3": "ペーパードライバー",
"tr": "pēpā doraibā"
},
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"name": "bor+"
},
{
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"2": "en",
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],
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{
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"tags": [
"plural"
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"ref": "1997 September 17, Mitch Sako, “NY TIMES: Japan's Economy Shrinks by 11.2% Annual Rate”, in soc.culture.japan.moderated (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-23:",
"text": "But the average Japanese does not own a car (as an individual). I don't have the figures but someone told me that less than half of those of driving age do not own a car, moreso,^([sic]) of those who do have a license, a relatively small percentage of those with licenses own their own car, many are paper drivers.",
"type": "quote"
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{
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],
"ref": "2002 February 17, Eric Takabayashi, “I'm going to New Jersey via Wisconsin to pick up some Snickers and Mars”, in fj.life.in-japan (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-23:",
"text": "There are people who surely should not drive. \"Paper drivers\" and at risk drivers should be recertified.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
28,
41
]
],
"ref": "2005 March 23, harv, “Interesting road rule in Japan.”, in aus.cars (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-23:",
"text": "There are courses aimed at \"Paper Drivers\" people who get their license but never use it, I know people that have had their license for over 7 Years and never driven except for the tests",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
49,
61
],
[
307,
319
]
],
"ref": "2009, Kumiko Murata, Jennifer Jenkins, Global Englishes in Asian Contexts: Current and Future Debates, page 22:",
"text": "If a person in Japan identifies her/himself as a paper driver, no non-Japanese is likely to find the intelligibility of the term difficult at all, but probably most non-Japanese will have no idea of the comprehensibility or the interpretability of the term. Almost all non-Japanese need to be taught that a paper driver is one who holds a legal driver's license but does not consider her/himself competent as a driver and usually uses the license only as a means of identification when legally necessary.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person who has a driver's license but never drives."
],
"links": [
[
"non-native speaker",
"non-native speaker"
],
[
"driver's license",
"driver's license"
]
],
"qualifier": "usually non-native speakers' English",
"raw_glosses": [
"(rare, usually non-native speakers' English) A person who has a driver's license but never drives."
],
"tags": [
"rare"
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "person who has a driver's license but never drives",
"word": "本本族"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "pēpā doraibā",
"sense": "person who has a driver's license but never drives",
"word": "ペーパードライバー"
}
],
"word": "paper driver"
}
Download raw JSONL data for paper driver meaning in English (3.8kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-20 using wiktextract (813e02a and ea19a0a). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.