漢字
かんじ · kanji · JLPT N5 · noun
Chinese character
🈶 漢字 = Han (China) + character: the letters of the Han
漢 (kan) names the Han dynasty and, by extension, China; 字 (ji) means written character. Same word as Chinese hànzì, borrowed along with the script itself, so kanji literally says Chinese characters.
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.