kanji

Where does the word "kanji" come from? It comes from Japanese kanji, and was adopted directly into English (1900s).

Kanji’s story begins in Japanese: kanji meant “Chinese-derived written characters.” Literally Han characters, the Chinese-derived characters used in Japanese writing. It reached English by 1900s as kanji. Japanese 'Han characters', borrowed from Chinese writing from around the 400s. Today, kanji means the Chinese-derived logographic characters used in Japanese writing.

1. Stage 1 · Japanese · medieval kanji "Chinese-derived written characters", literally Han characters, the Chinese-derived characters used in Japanese writing.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1900s kanji "the Chinese-derived characters used in Japanese writing", Japanese 'Han characters', borrowed from Chinese writing from around the 400s.