Hanja

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A traditional form of written characters used in the Korean language, derived from Chinese symbols, representing concepts and meanings
2. A type of logographic script originating from Chinese that is utilized for writing in Korean, comprising both individual characters and combinations
3. Characters adopted from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean writing system, serving to convey specific ideas and facilitate literacy

Etymology: Hanja are the Chinese characters that Korean writers have used for centuries, and the name itself is simply the Korean reading of the Chinese phrase "漢字," meaning "Han characters." The "Han" refers to the Han Chinese people and the Han dynasty, so the term means "characters of the Han," or in plain terms, Chinese writing. The same two-character phrase gave rise to a family of cognate names: Cantonese "hon3 zi6," Mandarin "hànzì," and Japanese "kanji," all describing the same script. Because the word was passed into Korean as a loan from Chinese, it is a doublet of kanji and hanzi, meaning these related terms are all descended from one shared original rather than being independent words. Korean later used a separate native alphabet, but hanja remained in use alongside it for many purposes, which is why the borrowed term still names the characters themselves.

Synonyms: Chinese characters, Sino-Korean characters