"I feel a sudden yen for a hamburger," said Jones as he turned the car into the parking lot of MacDonald's."

Wordwise: Of course you know the standard 'Japanese currency' meaning of this word, but few non-natives know the second common meaning.

Although "yen" suggests no more than a very strong longing these days, at one time, someone with a yen was in deep trouble indeed. The first meaning of "yen" was an intense craving for opium. The English term evolved from the Chinese "yin-yahn," which itself combines "yin," meaning "opium," and "yahn," meaning "craving." In English, the Chinese syllables were transformed to "yen-yen" and ultimately abbreviated to simply "yen." Eventually, "yen" was generalized to the more innocent meaning of "a strong desire," and the link to drug cravings was lost.

Please don't lose your yen to develop your English vocabulary!