英字
えいじ · eiji · JLPT N1 · noun
letter
🔤 英字 = English + character: a letter of the English alphabet, the 'eiji' (ei + ji) letters you spell with.
英 (ei) means English and 字 (ji) means character or letter. Put together, 英字 is any single letter written in the English alphabet, such as A or Z.
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.