ローマ字

ローマじ · roomaji · JLPT N2 · noun

Roman letters

🔤 ローマ (Rome) + 字 (letter) = letters from Rome, the Latin alphabet

ローマ is the Japanese word for Rome, and 字 means character or letter. ローマ字 is the Latin alphabet used to write Japanese sounds in Roman letters.

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.

More Japanese words · How Japanese works