当たる
あたる · ataru · JLPT N3 · verb-godan
to be successful
🎯 Atari, the game company, took its name from あたり, meaning a hit
Shout あたり! when you win a prize or guess right: it means a hit or a winner. The verb 当たる covers both senses, being struck by something and hitting the mark. In Go, atari is the warning that a stone is about to be captured.
当 — small ⺌ + crown 冖 + hand 彐 (simplified from 當: 尚 + 田)
Originally written 當, combining 田 'field' with 尚 as a phonetic. The early sense was 'to match' or 'face' a field of equal value, extended to 'correspond to', 'ought to', and 'serve as'. The simplified form 当 streamlines the upper 尚 component.