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The President of the United States gives a speech referred to in English as
the "State of the Union". Why is this speech called 一般教書演説{いっぱんきょうしょえんぜつ} in
Japanese?
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2019-02-06T03:28:55.593
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question
etymology compounds
Why is the State of the Union Address Called 一般教書演説?
As user27280 mentions, in English it [used to be known by a different
name](https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/stateoftheunion.pdf):

> **Has the Message Always Been Known by this Name?**
>
> The message was generally known as “the President’s Annual Message to
> Congress” until well into the 20th century. Although some historians suggest
> that the phrase “State of the Union” emerged only after World War II,
> President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1934 message is identified in his papers as
> his “Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union.” According to the
> Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, it was known informally
> as the State of the Union Address from 1942 to 1946, and has been known
> “generally” by the same name since 1947.

I found [a Japanese document from
1941](https://www.jacar.go.jp/nichibei/popup/19410106a.html), which calls it

> 「（２５）昭和十六年一月六日「ルーズヴェルト」ノ **一般議会教書** 」

[![President Roosevelt's message to the Seventy-seventh
Congress](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aFeV0.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aFeV0.png)

So the 一般教書 part of the term predates it being widespread to call it the
_**State of the Union**_ in English. I think the 一般 is to distinguish it from
other messages of the President to Congress such as The Budget Message (予算教書),
Annual Economic Report (経済報告–this one isn't a 教書), and whatever other special
messages the President might want to give (for example [Kennedy's 1963 speech
on mental health](https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-
viewer/archives/JFKPOF/052/JFKPOF-052-012) is translated as
[精神病及び精神薄弱に関する大統領教書](http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/gr/gsce/ce/2010/mk01.pdf)).
Even though the name of the speech changed in English, it's not surprising
that it might not have changed so drastically in Japanese.

EDIT: The earliest source of 一般教書 directly I can find is in
[1952](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40000288037). In that same year it was also
known as [大統領年頭一般教書](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40002147985). I can't find any
other sources for 一般議会教書 so that might have been a one time translation
choice. However, I'm unable to search newspapers/journals around the 1940s,
which likely would have had a concrete formalized translation.
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answer