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レシート is supposed to mean receipt. The adaptation of the word looks a bit odd
to me. If it comes from English, why does it lose the "p"? Why it uses a
"shii" sound instead of a "ce" (to me there are katakana characters which
sounds more similar to "ce" than "シー"? Maybe it comes from another language
than English where the word is more similar to the sound レシート? Which is it?
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etymology pronunciation katakana loanwords
Which language レシート is adapted from?
### Derivation of レシート

Numerous dictionaries state that レシート is from English _receipt_. See, for
instance, the Dajisen and Daijirin entries visible [here at
Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88-661566)
(in Japanese), or [here at
Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88#Japanese)
(in English; full disclosure: I edited that entry. See the listed sources
there for authoritatively edited materials.).

### Why it is rendered this way in Japanese

The English term _receipt_ is pronounced by all native speakers I personally
know as something like [[ɹɪˈsiːt]] or [[ɹɛˈsiːt]]. For instance, the ⟨p⟩ in
the spelling is not pronounced. Separately, the ⟨ce⟩ in the spelling combines
with the ⟨i⟩ to be pronounced as //siː//, not as //seː// nor //ceː// -- the
same as in _receive_.

The Japanese katakana rendering is thus a close approximation of the English
pronunciation, ignoring the oddities of the spelling.

For more about the English term, including the pronunciation and a description
for where that unpronounced ⟨p⟩ came from, see [the Wiktionary entry for
_receipt_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/receipt#English).
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There isn't a one-to-one mapping of Latin-based alphabets to the Japanese
writing system. So to answer your question:

> 'why does it lose the "p"?'

Katakana is syllabic - so when a foreign / loan word is written is Japanese,
they typically use the sound of the word (any "spelling" similarity is purely
coincidental). This applies to [any English word with silent
letters](https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/language-lab/silent-letter-english-
words-silent-letters-pronounce/), as they will not appear in the phonetic
rendering of the word.

When we say receipt in English, phonetically we sound identical to the English
word "reseat" too. Sounding something like:

> reh-see-t

One aspect / limitation of Japanese is its pronunciation rules - it has a
finite list of syllables / Kana to choose from. The "see" sound in the middle
of "receipt" is one such absence.

So, in Japanese we end up with (using the Hepburn romanization system):

> レ (re) シー (shi) ト (to)

Hepburn (and other systems) standardise the way we spell Japanese syllables.
So シ (shi) is pronounced similarly to the English pronoun "she", with a long
vowel. English spelling is notoriously inconsistent:

> "I did some reading in Reading." etc.

A consequence of having a consistent romanisation system (spelling of
syllables) is that it highlights this inconsistency.
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