当り
あたり · atari · JLPT N3 · noun
reaching the mark
🎯 Atari, the game company, took its name from this word, meaning a hit
当り comes from the verb 当たる (ataru), to hit or strike the mark. In Go, atari is the warning that a stone is about to be captured, and Atari the video game company took its name from that term. A winning lottery ticket is also 当たり.
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.