@twilliability that reminds me of others adventures of words, much more recent one - 米国 - beikoku, "rice country" - as a colloquial name for America. Apparently 'Muricans were not very clear in pronouncing the name of their country, so the Japanese version of 1854 US-Japan peace treaty records the name of US as "米利堅" (me-ri-ken, phonetically). It seems that people were too lazy to write all the kanji, so it became 米国 which is read as if it's a "real" word. I have no idea why 米 was chosen for "me" instead of hundreds of other options, though.