ateji
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
[edit] Japanese
[edit] Noun
ateji (hiragana あてじ)
- 当て字, 宛字: The use of kanji chosen primarily for their phonetic value to represent foreign or native Japanese words, or the kanji so used. For example, the city Paris is usually written in katakana パリ, and occasionally written in 巴里 as ateji. These expressions are often found at literatures, documents of later 19th century, and some other sort of documents.
