emoji (English)

Where does "emoji" come from?

The English word 'emoji' was borrowed from Japanese 'emoji'[1]. The Japanese term is a compound formed from 'e', meaning 'picture', combined with 'moji', meaning 'character'[1]. Although it sounds remarkably similar to English words like 'emotion', this resemblance is entirely coincidental, though that phonetic coincidence may have helped the word catch on globally[1].

Full etymology tree

• emoji (English), 'A digital graphic icon with a unique code point used to represent a concept, object, person, animal or place, originally used in Japanese text messaging but since adopted internationally in other contexts such as social media. Or, by extension, any non-standard emoji-like image inserted inline in text, i.e. an image emoticon.'
  • borrowed 絵文字 (emoji) (Japanese), 'pictograph'
    • compound 絵 (e) (Japanese), 'picture, painting'
      • derived 繪 (hwajH) (Middle Chinese)
    • compound 文字 (moji) (Japanese), 'a letter, a character (symbol for a sound or a word)'
      • derived 文字 (mjun dziH) (Middle Chinese)
  • influenced by emotion (English), 'Movement; agitation.'
  • influenced by emoticon (English), 'A graphical representation of a particular emotion of the writer, used especially in SMS, email, or other electronic communication.'

Ancestors

• emoji (Japanese)

Cognates and doublets

• emotion (English)

Descendants and derived words

• emojification (English)
• emoji flag sequence (English)
• emojify (English)
• emojipasta (English)
• emoji sequence (English)
• emoji ZWJ sequence (English)

Sources

1. emoji (English) - Wiktionary
2. 絵 (e) (Japanese) - Wiktionary
3. 文字 (moji) (Japanese) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris