Kung fu or gongfu or gung fu is a well-known Chinese term often used by speakers of the English language to refer to Chinese martial arts. Its original meaning is somewhat different, referring to one's expertise in any skill, not necessarily martial.

The term "kung fu" was not popular until the 20th century, thus the word would be seldom found in any ancient texts. The term was first known to have been reported in the 18th century by a Westerner, French Jesuit missionary Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, and was known little in the mainstream English language until approximately the late 1960s when it became popular because of the Hong Kong films, especially those by Bruce Lee, and later "Kung Fu" - the television series. Before that it was referred to primarily as "Chinese boxing".

Translation and Interpretation
It is hard to translate "kung fu" into English as we have no equivalent. In short it means "achievement through great effort" or simply virtue. It combines (kung) [sometimes gong] meaning achievement or merit, and (fu) which translates into man. In Mandarin, when two "first tone" words such as gong and fu are combined, the second word often takes a neutral tone, in this case forming gongfu.

Originally, to practice kung fu did not just mean to practice Chinese martial arts. Instead, it referred to the process of one's training - the strengthening of the body and the mind, the learning and the perfection of one's skills - rather than to what was being trained. It refers to excellence achieved through long practice in any endeavour. You can say that a person's kung fu is good in cooking, or has kung fu calligraphy. Saying that a person possesses kung fu in an area implies skill in that area, which they have worked hard to develop. Someone with "bad kung fu" simply has not put enough time and effort into training, or seems to lack the motivation to do so.Chinese martial arts, sometimes referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term wushu (pinyin: wushù) and popularly as kung fu (pinyin: gongfu),

For a process to be truly kung fu, Motivation, Self-discipline and Time must be present.