当て字

• 読み: あてじ
• ローマ字: ateji
• 漢字の分解: 当 (ate/tō) — to apply, to assign | 字 (ji) — character, letter
• 発音: /a.te.dʑi/

意味

Ateji; the use of kanji for their phonetic sound rather than their meaning, or kanji chosen creatively to suggest a meaning beyond the original reading.

A noun describing two related phenomena in Japanese writing. The first is borrowing kanji purely for sound, ignoring meaning (e.g., 寿司 for sushi, where the characters mean 'longevity' and 'officer'). The second is choosing kanji to evoke a desired meaning for a native Japanese word regardless of the standard reading. Both practices reflect the flexibility and playfulness of the Japanese writing system and have a long literary and commercial history.

例文

1. 寿司に使われる当て字は意味とは無関係で、音のみを借りたものだ。
2. 明治時代には外来語に当て字を当てる習慣が広く行われた。
3. この店名の当て字は、縁起の良い漢字を意識して選んだのだという。

使い方ガイド

場面: linguistics, etymology, Japanese language education, literary history

トーン: analytical

起源と歴史

From 当てる (to apply, to assign) and 字 (character). The concept dates to the Man'yōshū, where kanji were used extensively as phonetic symbols (万葉仮名) before hiragana and katakana were systematised.

文化的背景

時代: Classical–Modern

世代: Adults

社会的背景: Educated