The first non-Asian countries to have extensive contact with Japan were Portugal and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Japanese has several loanwords from Portuguese and Dutch, many of which are still used. The interaction between Japan and Portugal lasted from the late middle age until the early Edo era. (1549-1638). An example of the loanwords from Portuguese is "rasha", meaning a thick wool cloth that was indispensable during the period, but not used often nowadays. In the Edo era (1603–1853), words from the Dutch language, such as "glas", "gas", and "alcohol", started to have an impact in the Japanese language. Also, during the Edo era, many medical words like "Gaze" (meaning gauze) and "neuroses" came from German, and many artistic words such as "rouge" and "dessin" came from French. Most of the "gairaigo" since the nineteenth century came from English.