Is the word チェリーボーイ (Eng. "cherry boy", meaning "male virgin") a genuine
loanword from English, or is it wasei-eigo?

I would have thought it to be a genuine loanword, but [the sources cited on
English.SE here](https://english.stackexchange.com/a/290782/) seem to indicate
that the word was in use in Japan by the end of WWII (c. 1945), but is only
attested in English back to the 1970s. This suggests that "cherry boy" might
actually be a "reverse" loan of the wasei-eigo back into English, kind of like
"salaryman" and "office lady". The relative frequency of these words
(incredibly low in English; somewhat higher in Japanese) also sort of points
in this direction.

[語源由来辞典 says](http://gogen-allguide.com/ti/cherry_boy.html)
『「チェリーボーイ」は和製英語と思われがちだが、アメリカでも用いることはある』, but the mere fact that the word is
_used_ in English does not necessarily indicate that it _isn't_ wasei-eigo
(again, like "salaryman").
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words loanwords wasei-eigo
Is チェリーボーイ wasei-eigo?
The meaning of cherry boy is inexperienced soldier.Inexperienced soldier→male
virgin.I think japanese military or other country's military used this words.
And actually,experienced soldier were rated high by japanese military.For
example 靖国神社.By the way 和製英語 is word that japanese created
selfishly.Inexperienced soldier and male virgin are nearly meaning.So cherry
boy is not 和製英語.

In japan someone made love with 100 wemen is called 100人斬り. Both of these
words are concerned about war.It might be that these are japanese sexual
cultural words.

By the way that it is not 和製英語 doesn't mean english words.和製英語 is not quite
different meaning to English words.
"意味が日本特有であれば和製英語であると認定するならば、英語の意味からどの程度異なっていれば認定してよいかは難しい問題である" from jp
wikipedia和製英語.
この意味において日本特有の意味合いでないと思ったので和製英語ではないと私は思いました。日本製の言葉かと言われれば半分日本製の言葉かもしれません。

I have ever edited "和製英語" of english wikipedia.
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The oldest confirmed sighting I have for the term in Japanese is a [1972
song](http://www.showapops.com/wiki/index.php?title=%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B7%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA).
This raises the question of whether the term was introduced to Japan by
American soldiers [during the Vietnam
war](https://books.google.com/books?id=HRsWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=%22A%20World%20of%20Hurt%22%20%22cherry%20boy%22&source=bl&ots=sTyxKKN7qt&sig=Pe_rB4oQT3Pyoo8D7Fk2sEJYmgM&hl=ja&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiU3ozD0rvJAhXE1h4KHR8pA5QQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=%22A%20World%20of%20Hurt%22%20%22cherry%20boy%22&f=false),
as one comment has pointed out. Even more intriguing is the earliest citation
for it on Google Books: the gay poet Royston Ellis's book _The Cherry Boy_
(Turret, 1966), followed by Lance Taunton's _Cherry Boy_ (Windsor House,
1970), which is apparently gay erotica. A bit of Googling seems to
[confirm](http://www.odps.org/glossword/index.php?a=term&d=8&t=2754) that
"cherry boy" was period slang in the gay community.

But this doesn't rule out wasei-eigo. This still might be the result of some
Japanese schoolboys irresponsibly granted access to an English dictionary,
since according to 渋谷知美『日本の童貞』, the 日本チェリーボーイ倶楽部 was founded in 1956. However,
I'm not entirely sure of the provenance of this claim, as the book's sole
source for the club is a 1996 article in a weekly tabloid. (By the way, that
book points out that the Japanese language didn't even have a term for male
virginity until the 1920s.)
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