Did you know 'emoji' is a Japanese word and has nothing to do with emotions or emoticons or whatever?

絵文字 (emoji): 絵 (e) means picture, and 文字 (moji), means character (moji is two kanji--the first meaning culture or writing and the second meaning letter).

The word 漢字 (kanji) itself uses the same 'ji' (字), with the 'kan' part meaning China (so kanji means 'Chinese character').

I just find that all interesting. In a way, emoji and kanji serve the same sort of function.

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@Lexi I thought the e was just the e meaning electronic as seen in email and a number of other terms that didn't survive the 90s.

@Rosemary That would also have made sense! "E-文字"

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