字
じ · ji · JLPT N4 · noun
character
🔤 字 = roof 宀 + child 子: a child studying letters at home
The top part 宀 means roof and the bottom 子 means child, which also supplies the sound (子 is read shi/ji). Sound hook: ji is the start of jink-free 'G' — the letter G is a character, and 字 means letter or character.
字 — roof 宀 + child 子
Originally depicted a child 子 under a roof 宀, suggesting birth or rearing a child in the home. The meaning later extended to 'to give birth, nurture' and then to 'written character', since characters were seen as offspring derived from earlier pictographs.